Breaking the Word

 Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be…

"Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them…

Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more. (Lk 12:32-48)

Kingdom is a gift from God. He is pleased to give it. Kingdom is not given in exchange for any of our activities. But anyone who receives this gift is obliged, by the gift itself, to activities that will in turn build up treasures in heaven. The gift (kingdom) obliges us to sell all what we have and give them to the poor. The gift (kingdom) obliges us to store up treasure in heaven. So the gift is important.

“Gird your loins and light your lamps” reminds us to be ready and watchful. Like the kingdom which is a gift given freely; so also the arrival of the master (Lord of the kingdom) will happen unexpectedly. No one knows the time and the hour. It could happen at any watch of the night. People should wait for his arrival but should be ready and watchful.

Gift given is not to waste the gift. Whatever is entrusted is demanded later. Whatever is given is to be accounted for and to be transparent about. Because the lord says that much will be required (accountability) and more will be demanded (transparency). Yes, every gift is obliging. 

When they came to the crowd a man approached, knelt down before him, and said, "Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him." Jesus said in reply, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring him here to me." Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him, and from that hour the boy was cured. Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said, "Why could we not drive it out?"  He said to them, "Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Mt 17:14-20)

When people suffer severely, they always approach God, Godly persons or disciples of Godly persons. Man accepts that there are situations which are beyond the control of man and man on his own will not be able to overcome it. Man accepts that such situations need the help and the assistance from above (divine).

God can certainly overcome such situations because nothing is impossible for God. Now what about Godly persons? Godly persons will be able to do only with the help of faith. But many a times Godly persons appear to be Godly but without faith. “O faithless and perverse generations”. Yes there could be Godly persons without faith.

This is the lesson that Jesus gives his disciples. He advices his disciples, that they could not do the needful because of their lack of faith. Faith, not in the sense of great quantity. But a little faith: faith in the size of a mustard seed. Jesus also says that nothing is impossible for a man of faith (nothing is impossible for God).