Scripture Reflections for the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year C, Lectionary 141
Amidst the troubles of the world God is asking us to do something. To speak, teach, live out God's love. St. Paul reminds us that God 'did not give us a spirit of cowardice.' Jesus tells us all we really need is a small amount of faith for God to work wonders through us. All that is required is to face God. It is not about trying to reach God but understanding God is right here with us.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Care • Community • Disciple • Environment • Faith • Fidelity • Gift • History • Holy • Hope • Humility • Invitation • Journey • Justice • Love • Martyr • Ministry • Mission • Offering • Ordination • Praise • Prayer • Remind • Respond • Serve • Sight • Suffering • Surrender • Works •
“So even though Paul himself doesn't use the language of ordination, this is in effect the reality what we would describe as Timothy's ordination to the sacrament of holy orders”
“'Lord, increase our faith.' God says 'well, open your eyes and let me.'”
“So the point is that faith can do supernatural things. Faith can do things that are technically impossible but it accomplishes these things through the power of God. And that's the basic point of the parable. A very short parable, but a very powerful parable.”
“Christ serves his very self at the table of the Lord and he's encouraging you and me to do the same for those people who God puts in our life. To serve our very selves...the service is itself the reward and the reward is out of this world.”
“Everybody is offered faith but you have to take that faith and open it. It's like receiving an envelope and never opening the envelope and seeing the birthday card inside. We've got to open the gift of faith and then we've got to use it.”
“Faith refers to what we believe. It is also a way of seeing. But thirdly, we can describe faith as a journey.”
“Faith may not always change our circumstances overnight but it always changes us. It gives us courage to endure, strength to forgive, and hope to keep walking. Faith begins with the little things in life. It grows with practice.”
“God does not ask the impossible of us. The absurd perhaps but not the impossible.”
“We see the inbreaking of the Kingdom when communities rally together for the most marginalized, when local food banks serve the hungry, when diversity is celebrated, when children laugh and play as children should”
“We can understand from the response of Jesus that it is not the size of the faith that counts but how willing we are to make use of the little that is available to us. With faith as little as the size of a mustard seed we can achieve even what the world sees as impossible.”
“God will not be outdone in generosity. If you give it to God and let God do the growth, let God take care of it, God is an abundant God, God's not a stingy God. God's gonna make it what God wants it to be through your ministry.”
“Do we really need a hurricane, a fire, an earthquake, whatever it might be, for us to start acting like human beings, children of the most high God, sisters and brothers to all?”
“The stories we read, the places we go, the images we ponder, shape our vision of other people...there are faulty histories, old misconceptions and one-sided points of view that get in our way. These are the non-essential and potentially lethal items for us to discard.”
“It is not surprising that the disciples appealed to Jesus: 'increase our faith.' Jesus does not give his disciples an easy answer to their request for faith and the amazing thing is even the little faith can do.”
“We indeed must hope for and work for change but we also recognize that change comes slowly. Therefore, it requires patience and serenity”
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