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The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” The Lord
replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would
say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’
and it would obey you.” Luke 17:5–6
Is it possible to completely uproot a tree and plant it in the sea?
It’s certainly hard to imagine how. It is especially hard to
imagine doing so with a simple command of faith. Uprooting a tree
is hard enough to imagine, but it is even more difficult to imagine
a tree being planted in the sea. Though water is necessary, one
cannot plant a tree in the sea and expect it to grow. But that’s
partly the point. We often underestimate the power of true faith.
Saint Matthew’s Gospel says that faith can move mountains. Saint
Luke’s says it can uproot a tree and replant it in the sea. All it
takes to do so is faith the size of a mustard seed.
How much faith is equal to a mustard seed? A mustard seed is small,
very small. It measures only about one millimeter in length. People
who worked the soil at that time would have known that it was among
the smallest of seeds they planted. For that reason, Jesus uses
this familiar image to teach the apostles that faith, even a little
faith, is powerful.
Jesus’ teaching comes in response to a prayer on the part of the
apostles. “Increase our faith,” they said. Jesus’ response,
inviting them to have only a little faith, implies that their faith
was quite weak. To increase their faith to the size of a mustard
seed suggests that they did not even have a little faith yet. Most
likely they were aware of that fact, and that was the reason they
asked Jesus to increase their faith. They perceived their lacking
and turned to Him Who could help.
One of the first steps to increasing faith is to humbly admit our
lack of faith. In our pride, we often want to convince ourselves
and others that we are filled with faith. But if that were the
case, God would be doing incredible things through us. He would be
doing that which is otherwise humanly impossible.
Obviously, faith does not give us magical powers by which we can
literally command a tree to uproot itself and plant itself in the
sea. This imagery is meant to tell us that faith will work miracles
of faith, not necessarily physical miracles. In fact, if God ever
did use us and our faith to work a physical miracle, it would only
happen because it was a motivation for the far more important gift
of the increase of faith.
What, then, can a little faith do? It can uproot sin from your
heart and from the hearts of those around you. It can nourish you
and others in ways that seem impossible. Just as a tree cannot
normally be planted in the sea and survive, the gift of faith, even
a little faith, will enable the soul to be nourished and
strengthened in ways that otherwise seem impossible. A martyr
perfectly illustrates this fact. Normally, persecution and death
are not considered to be nourishing to a person. But when a person
has faith and suffers martyrdom on account of Christ, then their
soul will be fed by the persecution itself. And that is among the
greatest of miracles possible. Suffering, persecution, illness,
poverty, and every other difficulty imaginable are transformed by
God into a source of nourishment when we endure them with true
faith.
Reflect, today, upon the prayer of the apostles: “Increase our
faith.” Some of the greatest mystics taught that faith darkens the
intellect. By this darkening, they mean that, by faith, God will
lead us into the unknown, on a path that He alone is aware of. We
will become instruments of His transforming grace in ways that are
completely beyond our natural abilities. Pray for an increase of
faith. When our Lord hears your humble prayer, by which you also
confess your lack of faith, He will increase that faith, uproot sin
and evil, and plant your soul in places in which you become
nourished in ways that you could have never imagined
possible.
Most glorious Lord, Increase my faith. Give me a pure faith—a
faith that enables You to lead me down the unknown path to Your
glory. With this gift of faith, please use me to bring forth Your
miraculous power by which sin is uprooted and souls are nourished
by You alone. Jesus, I trust in You.
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