In this Sunday reflection,
Friar Luciano Audisio
Luciano Audisio meditates on the Apostles’ plea: “Lord, increase our faith”. A petition that is born of human frailty and leads us to the heart of the Gospel: to believe, obey and serve without seeking reward, with the freedom of love that transforms life.
A plea born of the human boundary
The plea we hear in today’s Gospel is brief, but it touches the heart of our Christian life: “Lord, increase our faith”.
It is not just any prayer, nor is it a devotional whim. It is the cry of some apostles who have just heard Jesus speak of the scandal of evil and the need to forgive always.
In the face of these challenges – innocent pain, violence, injustice, the difficulty of forgiving without measure – they feel that their strength is not enough, and can only cry out: “Lord, add to our faith, continue our faith, sustain our faith”.
Faith as a gift that is added
It is interesting to note that Luke does not speak here of “disciples”, but of “apostles”. The disciple learns; the apostle is sent.
And he who is to proclaim Christ cannot rely on his personal efforts alone:
He needs to live by a faith that is a free gift of the Lord.
“Faith cannot be bought or manufactured; it is a gift that He adds to our life, like a new grain that fecundates our heart”.
A faith that transforms the impossible
Jesus’ answer is puzzling: “If they had faith as a mustard seed”.
Mark, the oldest Gospel, had used this seed to speak of the Kingdom of God that grows little by little. Luke, on the other hand, applies it to faith and takes it further:
such a small faith can uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea.
Why a mulberry tree? For the rabbis it was the tree with the deepest roots, impossible to uproot. Faith, says Jesus,
is capable of uprooting what seemed immovable in our lives:
old habits, false securities, beliefs that bind us.
Faith is a transplant: it uproots us from the old and plants us in new soil.
“Faith transforms the impossible: it makes death a source of life, turns darkness into fruitfulness, failure into the beginning of something new.”
Faith as obedience
The third verb in the passage is “obey” (ὑπήκουσεν). Faith is not magic or power to manipulate God. It is trusting listening, obedience of the heart, openness to the Word that transforms us.
To believe is to live in an attitude of listening, to let the voice of the Lord guide our life even when we do not understand everything.
The servant who serves out of love
Then the Gospel changes its tone with a parable unique to Luke:
That of the unprofitable servant.
The servant works all day and, when he finishes, says: “We have only done what we had to do”.
The word “useless” (ἀχρεῖος) can best be translated as “poor servant”: one who serves without seeking utility or profit.
This servant is, first and foremost,
Jesus himself
who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life for all. And, at the same time, it is also the vocation of every Christian:
to live the freedom to serve without expecting anything in return.
Serve for love, not for reward
Here we come to the heart of faith: it is not a means to obtain rewards, it is not an insurance to do well, it is not a bargain with God.
Faith is absolute trust in the Lord and freedom to love without calculation.
“The fullness of faith is gratuitous love.”
When we serve without expecting payment, when we forgive without limit, when we give our lives without calculation,
we resemble the Servant par excellence, Christ Jesus.
And at that moment we discover that we are freer than ever, because loving and serving selflessly opens us to true joy.
Today we too repeat the apostles’ plea: “Lord, increase our faith”.
May He uproot what still enslaves us, may He plant us on new ground, may He transform our seas of death into fountains of life.
And, above all, may he give us the freedom to serve as he does, with a free, simple and profound love.
Because faith is not a calculation or a utility: faith is living in Christ, allowing ourselves to be led by Him and discovering that humble service is the greatest expression of love.