Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Year C
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Year C (pdf)
Spiritual Reflection
The Apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” Lk 17:5
You have faith to the extent of your being poor in spirit. The word “poor” in the biblical sense does not necessarily mean poverty in the material sense. For example, King David, a man at the top of the social scale, was poor in spirit. A person poor in spirit is one who is stripped of self-confidence. He is one who knows that he cannot count on himself or on his own strength. This kind of person is oriented toward awaiting everything from God and is not rooted in temporal things.
If you feel that you are strong in the sense that you possess natural abilities, your faith cannot develop and deepen. That is why you have to experience your weakness; you have to realize that there are things you cannot do. This will be the call to faith. Your weakness, inability, and helplessness will become a crack through which the grace of faith will squeeze into your heart. Through your woundedness, God gives you the grace of deepening your faith…
The so-called self-righteous adults are impenetrable to grace.
Perhaps in your life, there is a terrible unhealed wound, maybe an unforgotten torment, a resentment that you have not been able to get over, some kind of hidden bitterness that accompanies so many things in this life, maybe some kind of disaster. You then think that this is the end, but this is not so. These can be your channel for grace. God must allow so many wounds, so many hard moments, so that you feel weak and, through this, open to grace. When you feel very painfully touched, remember that this is a blessed pain that makes room for grace to penetrate your armor of maturity and self-righteousness. All of this is a chance for you to deepen your faith. Through faith your weakness lets the might of God dwell in you. When coming closer to you, God must make you weaker so that you will need Him – so that, as your faith and trust in Him increase, you will seek support from Him. You have to be humbled because you are too great – and wounding humbles. Hence, every wounding gives you a chance to become more and more like an evangelical child. Sometimes it will take many wounds to become a child so that you will walk “the little way.”
God, getting closer to man, weakens him. He does just the opposite of what we would expect. You may believe that it is you who are approaching Him, and that, under those conditions, you should become increasingly stronger and increasingly more able to get along by yourself. However, it is He who is coming closer to you, and His approach makes you weaker – physically, mentally, or spiritually. He does this in order to dwell in you with His might, since it is your weakness that makes room for His might. When you are weak, you cannot trust in yourself, you cannot believe in yourself; and then the opportunity comes for you to turn to Him and to desire to rely on Him.
Tadeusz Dajczer, The Gift of Faith, pp.48-51
References from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
2546 "Blessed are the poor in spirit."338 The Beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and grace, of beauty and peace. Jesus celebrates the joy of the poor, to whom the Kingdom already belongs:339 The Word speaks of voluntary humility as "poverty in spirit"; the Apostle gives an example of God's poverty when he says: "For your sakes he became poor."340
2547 The Lord grieves over the rich, because they find their consolation in the abundance of goods.341 "Let the proud seek and love earthly kingdoms, but blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven."342 Abandonment to the providence of the Father in heaven frees us from anxiety about tomorrow.343 Trust in God is a preparation for the blessedness of the poor. They shall see God.
305 Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes care of his children's smallest needs: "Therefore do not be anxious, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?". . . Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well."167
Questions for Reflection
1. In my daily life, what does “poor in spirit” mean to me? How is it manifested?
2. What is my usual reaction when God allows hard moments or difficult situations in my life? How is God’s love present in these situations?
3. How can I obtain from Mary, the lowly Handmaid of the Lord, the grace to become more childlike and deepen my faith?
Prayer after Sharing
Thank you, God, for allowing me to see the truth about my weaknesses and how it calls upon the abyss of your merciful Love.