Daily Gospel Reflection
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October 2, 2022
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.
“Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?
Would he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished’?
Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
So should it be with you.
When you have done all you have been commanded,
say, ‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.'”
The apostles are afraid to fail, and who can blame them? They are literally on a mission from God. Their request that Jesus put a little more fuel in their tank and “increase [their] faith” does not seem unreasonable.
But in Luke’s telling, Jesus replies with mixed metaphors—mustard seeds, mulberry trees, sheep in fields, enslaved people in aprons, cranky masters, an evening meal, and the power to throw everything into the sea. Honestly, it’s all a little confusing. Plus, Jesus’ response comes across as a little snippy, but perhaps Christ’s frustration is not unfair.
When I started my writing career, I spent a lot of time in preparation. I studied how-to books, attended author lectures, collected favorite pens, purchased perfect notebooks, and treasured my dog-eared copy of Bird by Bird. I was constantly getting ready, but I didn’t write. I was afraid of what I might be lacking.
In the meantime, our daughter arrived. A cranky, colicky (and adorable) baby, she turned my wife and me into sleep-deprived zombies who also juggled work, a fixer-upper house, our five-year-old son, and a rescue beagle who suffered from separation anxiety. Our life was a sitcom. For better or worse, that’s when I finally began to put words on paper. I still lacked confidence, talent, skill, and ability, but I was too tired to care, so I just started.
As it works out, great gobs of faith, talent, sleep, or the perfect pen are not necessary for most things. Instead, as Jesus tries to tell the apostles, we are called to use what we’ve got where we are at. Even if it’s just a little bit, even when it doesn’t seem like enough, it might be the first step toward writing a story, tossing a tree into the ocean, feeding some sheep, or maybe even sharing the Light of Christ.
Prayer
Let us not boast, Lord God, about our accomplishments in your service. What good we have done has been due to your help, grace, and inspiration. Let us be aware of your assistance through fidelity, honesty, courage, and faith. If we are at peace both with ourselves and with others, it is due mainly to your help in keeping us from bitterness, hate, or jealousy. Let our kindness to others reflect your kindness to us. Amen.
Saint of the Day
The idea of a guardian angel or a heavenly guide may seem superstitious, old-fashioned, or outdated to some. It is difficult, sometimes, to understand why Catholicism would include in its Catechism this rather fanciful idea. The teachings of the Catholic church are not designed simply to be facts we blindly agree with or disagree with, however, but are rather designed to reveal more to us about our God who is love, the world God created, and how God seeks to offer us grace and salvation in every moment of our lives.
In its paragraph on guardian angels, the Catechism of the Catholic Church includes a quote from the great fourth-century theologian's, St. Basil of Caesarea's, treatise against Eunomius: “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him or her to life” (CCC 336). Basil's idea has some scriptural foundation, as Christ says: "Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven" (Mt 18:10).
The word “angel” comes from the Greek word angelos, a translation of the Hebrew word for “messenger.” Angels in Hebrew Scriptures function as spirits that bring messages from God—an angel brings word to Abraham to spare Isaac, an angel wrestles with Jacob, and angels help Daniel interpret God's visions. In the New Testament, the angel Gabriel announces the births of Jesus and John the Baptist, angels assist Jesus when he is tempted in the desert and in his agony in the garden. In varying gospel accounts, angel(s) are witnessed at the empty tomb, and Matthew credits an angel from rolling the stone back from the entrance.
Who are these angels? What are they all about?
The branch of Christian theology that attempts to answer these questions, angelology, developed in the fourth century, beginning with Ambrose and Jerome, but really taking off with the theologian Pseudo-Dionysius. Pope Gregory the Great developed his own hierarchy of the angelic choirs, and Thomas Aquinas discusses angels in his Summa Theologica. While their ideas about the nature and organization of angels vary somewhat they agree on several key truths about angels. Angels are created spirits, having intellects and wills, but no bodies. Their presence in Scripture witnesses to a God who is an active agent operating in the world, but in ways that are still somewhat mysterious to human beings.
Angels are celebrated in the church's liturgical year on today's feast because the church desires to celebrate God's mysterious providence in creation. In the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI from his Angelus address on October 2, 2011, "the Lord is ever close and active in humanity’s history and accompanies us with the unique presence of his Angels. [...] From the beginning until the hour of death, human life is surrounded by their constant protection." Angels are yet another manifestation of the ever-provident care of our endlessly generous God who did not set creation in motion and leave it to its own devices, but who seeks, each day, to draw creation back towards the Divine Love from which it came.
This feast, which may be so uncomfortable to our scientific minds that want to reduce the world to explainable phenomena, reminds us that the physical world of our five senses is not the sum total of reality. Indeed, there are more things in heaven and earth, says Hamlet, "than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Creation comes from the God who is mystery, and creation is itself mystery.
Angels are depicted in many places on Notre Dame's campus, most notably in the murals that decorate the Basilica of the Sacred Heart's richly painted ceiling. Several stained glass windows in the Basilica, such as the one above, portray angels as protectors and guardians of humans. Finally, the chapel of Moreau Seminary, shown below, features a stunning stained glass mosaic of angels behind the altar, which floods the church with light in both the morning and evening, reminding us of the constant care of God's angels for us, through all times and seasons of our life.
Angel of God, be at my side to light, to guard, to rule and guide!