Uprooting Trees And Being Unprofitable Servants

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Course 2022

Today’s Gospel might whipsaw our brains a little, particularly if you read the whole chapter. Right before this passage, Jesus has been warning His disciples, and therefore us, against teaching others to sin. That’s called scandal. Here He speaks about the demands of faith, and what a little faith could do. Then He jumps to the topic of whether disciples can be anything more than unprofitable. After this He’ll heal some lepers.

Remember, this is Jesus’s last trip from Galilee to Jerusalem, and Jesus’s retinue is walking with Him. They are all on foot, and probably are part of a larger crowd going up for the Passover festival. I think it’s important when you are young to spend some hours, maybe with your family, walking from one place to another. It’s a good way to get to know your companions. You talk about anything you want, and you tend not to stick to just one topic. So that’s what Jesus is doing here, and we are listening in to His wisdom.

Remember–and we all tend to forget–that the goal of our life, our proper end, is to be the kind of human that God intended all along. We are to be completely in accord with God’s will, images of Jesus. And don’t forget the best of women, Mary, is the image of what all women are meant to be like. That means, of course, living a life of faith, hope, and love. These are all virtues given to us sacramentally in Baptism, and in many ways strengthened through the course of our lives.

What we do with these gifts is up to us, as we act in accord with God’s will. Faith is the basis of the Christian life. We believe in God, and in our calling to be filled with grace and effective in growing in Christ, and drawing others to Christ. The strength of our faith will grow as we mature, and especially as we encounter and overcome problems in life. We can look at Jesus and His apostles after the resurrection. They preached and taught and cured some impossible illnesses. Paul even raised a boy from the dead, when he fell asleep during Paul’s sermon and fell out of a window! That’s why the Church doesn’t recognize a saint until some miraculous cure is attributed to their prayers.

Saint Paul gives us a short description of Christ’s expectations of Church leaders here in his letter to Timothy. It’s pretty demanding. Paul ordained Timothy to leadership–Tradition tells us he was bishop of Ephesus in Turkey. At this ordination, God gifted Timothy with the abilities he would need as a leader. Timothy was gifted with courage, just as we all are gifted as committed followers of Christ. He has powers and love and self-control, just what we all need. He is to follow the pattern of Paul’s leadership in faith and love–imitating what he learned in the life of Christ. Moreover, he is to guard the truth he has been taught. We can’t make up Christian doctrine as we go along. We can’t tell others that something is acceptable when it is morally wrong. That’s the trouble with many Church leaders. Because of human respect or a donor’s bank account, one is tempted to let scandalous behavior slide. But God’s gift is enough for us. We just have to apply that mustard-seed faith we are given and trust that God will give us what we need.

One more thing about prayer. The prophet Habakkuk laments that he has prayed long for God’s help during a horrible crisis, and he feels like God hasn’t heard. But the Lord heard and answered, as He always will. We are encouraged to be patient. Do what is right and live by faith. That’s what God expects, and what will bring us through to a good end. Nor can we be smug about what we are doing, because, in the end, we are only doing what God expects of us, and letting Him do the rest.