The Apostles said to the Lord: "Increase our faith," and he answered: "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to the sycamore, 'be uprooted and transplanted into the sea,' and it would obey you.
"If one of you had a servant plowing or herding sheep and he came in from the fields, would you say to him,'Come and sit down at the table?' Would you not rather say,'Prepare my supper. You can eat and drink afterward?' Would he be grateful to the servant who was only carrying out his orders.? It is quite the same with you who hear me. When you have done all you have been commanded to do, say, 'We are useless servants. We have done no more than our duty.' "
The mustard seed has always been a source of inspiration. I received a little mustard seed necklace when I received my first communion an impossible 50 years ago this month. My journey with God since then has had it's major challenges as living the Gospel always does, but the image of the mustard seed has always given me strength through many years and many terrains of spiritual journey. I still wear a mustard seed pin on my scrub top whenever I am serving God in his people as a physician. If you haven't had a chance to see a mustard seed, it looks hardly bigger than a prominent speck of dust, yet it grows into a tree large enough to shelter the birds of the air. In a world where bigger and larger are it seems always deemed better, knowing that even a little faith goes a long way, is very comforting. We do not need to have heroic faith to accomplish heroic things in ministry, all we need to do is trust.
Let's look at the lives of some folks who did just that: trusted. Consider the life of St. Juliana of Norwich, a 14th century recluse and mystic. She was probably a Benedictine nun and lived her life in seclusion. Her faithfulness yielded a heart that was incredibly opened to grace by God's mercy. She was blessed with a mystical understanding of the soul's union with God that has blessed the world for centuries since she has lived and died, leading many souls to a greater peacefulness on their spiritual journey. She remember lived her life in seclusion, in prayer and fasting. Yet in her hiddenness and littleness, her mustard seed of faith did indeed yield a rich harvest for millions of souls besides her own. Her writings and revelations will continue to inspire generations to come I am sure. (I recommend reading her sharings if you are not familiar with her.)
Likewise too, Blessed Charles de Foucald was one whose mustard seed of faith yielded an unexpected harvest. Charles lived much more recently being born in the 19th century dying in 1916 at the age of 58. From the point of view of the world his life would not have seemed to have amounted to much. (Much in some ways like a certain Jesus of Nazareth except that Jesus had more followers during his lifetime than Charles did.) He was born in France and "lost" his faith as an adolescent but his spiritual hunger lead him to keep seeking and eventually he not only found a living mustard seed of faith within him, but he knew he needed to devote his life to serving Jesus in living a lifestyle of poverty and humility.
He went to the desert and tried to live the humble life of Jesus at Nazareth. He worked hard and tried to be a true brother to all. He wrote a rule for a Religious order but such an order was never to become a reality in his lifetime. He was eventually ordained a priest at age 43 after God kept pushing him to receive ordination. He wanted to be a presence of God to those most isolated and abandoned. He truly tried to proclaim the Gospel with his life. He wrote: “I would like to be sufficiently good that people would say, “If such is the servant, what must the Master be like?” (Would that all of us would take our cue from such a challenge!) He was killed by a band of marauders for no apparent reason, so he was a victim of random violence in the desert, not so unconnected to our own times of so much random violence and suffering.
He made only two converts to his faith formally in his lifetime although he was respected and admired by many Bedouin tribes. Again as I said if you look at the simple facts of his life like that of Juliana there doesn't seem to be much consequence to it. However his rule for a Religious order sparked many hundreds of Religious and lay communities the world over and so again this little life has inspired literally millions of folks to live a holy life of simple service. From the seed of faith indeed great trees bloom if only we would trust that God's word to us is true and that none of us live in vain. (I do recommend the writings of Charles as well but only if you really want to be challenged to a deeper faith and a greater love.)
Then of course there is the "little soul" of St. Therese of Lisieux. Therese was a contemporary of Charles, both of them being born in the 19th century, he in 1858 and she in 1873. Therese lived only 24 years and yet she has effected souls across the world with the "mustard seed" of her autobiography entitled: The story of a soul. She lived in France, was sickly most of her life, entered a cloistered nunnery at age 15 and died 11 years later. Again from the vision of the world, no big deal. She was one who was truly in love with Jesus and who perfected a "little way of grace." She offered all the ordinary challenges of the day, the little things of life as an offering to God. Through this "little way" the mustard seed of her faith blossomed into a tree of unimaginable magnitude. Therese's Story of a soul has been translated into numerous languages and touched millions of souls of various faiths and spiritualities. She is a spiritual giant upon whom many still count for spiritual guidance and help in their daily lives.She promised that she would spend her eternity showering the earth with roses of blessings and she has kept her promise. (If you have not read her Story of a soul, treat yourself to an adventure of grace.)
All of these wonderful folks also understood the second half of this passage in Luke. We are called to be the icons of God for a world so in need of the experience of God's presence. This is not extra credit or work above and beyond the call of duty. No, this is who we are made to be. To be less than an icon of the Living God is to be less than we were created to be. We have that choice but why would we not want to be all the goodness of God we were created to be? Being good to each other is wonderful and graced, but it is not "extra credit;" it is stepping up to the fullness of our true selves. We are genuinely created in the image and likeness of God. Are other folks blessed by our presence? Do we at least try to be the best cup of God we can be? God's love is freely given to all, but it must be freely received also. We too can expect that just as folks reject God for whatever reason, they will reject us as his icons. This isn't any extra special suffering either, just part of the call to be a true reflection of God's love. This too is part of the journey of the human soul, no more no less. Sometimes if we keep these things in perspective we will feel less persecuted also.
I leave you with a final story of my own. A woman I met in college named Jennifer used to call me every few years after we went our separate ways.Often we just talked to each other's answering machines. I hadn't seen Jennifer for 22 years and yet she called one day (on exactly the day I most needed it) to let me know how much of a difference I had made in her life. When she called, her words were like a letter from God reminding me of exactly what I needed to remember to carry on faith's journey. She reminded me of two things I had said long ago that made a real difference in her life.
Jen and I were part of a spiritual community in college but I am older than she and so left college a couple of years before she did. The breakup of part of the community (those graduating with me) was very traumatic to Jen as the spiritual community we shared was a close knit one. I comforted her at that time by telling her that we are always with each other in the heart of God who made us one on the journey in the first place. I told her that we didn't need to talk to or see each other to be a part of each other's lives, but when we needed that kind of embrace, God would connect us in whatever way we most needed. I assured us none of us are ever alone on the journey. We all walk in community even the hermits of the world and those who seem so isolated. God connects us all. If I close my eyes to the light of a sunny day and complain of the darkness, that does not diminish the grace of the light, only my present perception and reception of it. So too with grace. We walk in faith for a reason as "reason" only gets us so far. We will always have inadequate understanding for our minds to be the "chiefs" of our paths. Rather we must be spirit-led and so walk in faith where the mind cannot take us through this Mystery that is Life.
Jen reminded me of one other thing I said to her that was surely God speaking. She said that she once felt so broken that she wondered if she could ever serve God or help others in any meaningful way. I told her then that even if a cup is so terribly broken that it has no bottom at all, if the ocean is poured through it, the cup will always remain full because of the vastness of the ocean. So too it is with us. We are the broken cups and God is the ocean of endless Love that pours through us. We don't have to fix our cracks, so to speak, for God to use us. We just have to be willing to have the water of Love flow through us. We don't have to be whole to be vessels of healing, or understand to bear his wisdom to another. The cup can never limit the ocean poured into it, rather the ocean fills and fulfills the cup. We are the cup and God the ocean. We can freely choose not to invite the ocean into our cup, but why would we want to make such a choice?
Let us embrace the faith of a mustard seed then, and trust that our lives will bear great fruit, but understand that the harvest is seldom within our vision. Nonetheless as we struggle to live as people of faith and devotion to God's holy love, we should be encouraged that God is already using us to change the world around us. He is making us lights for too much surrounding darkness. We don't have to see it to trust that it is true; for God has promised that his grace, his Word, does not go forth from him and return empty but instead yields a rich and eternal harvest. Let us trust then his living Word to pass through us and bear needed fruit one graced moment at a time.
God bless us all.
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