Catholic lectionary for 12 November 2024

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Titus, Chapter 2, verses 1-8, 11-14

¹ Directions given unto Titus both for his doctrine and life, ⁹ Of the duty of servants, and in general of all Christians

¹But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:

²That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.

³The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

⁴That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

⁵To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

⁶Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

⁷In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,

⁸Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.
...

¹¹For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

¹²Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

¹³Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

¹⁴Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Read more:Titus, Chapter 2

Luke, Chapter 17, verses 7-10

⁷ How we are bound to God, and not he to us

⁷But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?

⁸And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?

⁹Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.

¹⁰So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Read more:Luke, Chapter 17

NOTES

As the Savior's words show, the question of faith is directly connected with the question of spiritual life as such. What does it mean to increase faith? How did the disciples themselves understand an increase in faith? They must have meant something connected with the confidence they experienced...

As the Savior's words show, the question of faith is directly connected with the question of spiritual life as such. What does it mean to increase faith? How did the disciples themselves understand an increase in faith? They must have meant something connected with the confidence they experienced when, at their Teacher's command, they preached the Kingdom and joyfully saw that not only people, but also spirits obeyed them. In those days, this sense of power was usually associated with faith, with its presence or absence. Jesus, however, is speaking of something somewhat different. He speaks of faith as a spiritual state. Precisely and only a spiritual one. After all, any manifestation of inner strength in a person is a natural phenomenon as much as a spiritual one. Here there is not only the spiritual impulse as such, not intention alone, but also nature and the psyche, which also respond to spiritual influence. But Jesus speaks only of the spirit. Only of the will. Only of intention.

Spirit is not nature. Quantitative measurements are impossible here. Spirit, or will, does not come in larger or smaller amounts. If the will is not fragmented, if it is not scattered through inner, psychological space or outer, physical space, it has absolute force. Not in the whole universe created by God, of course; only the will of the Creator Himself has that kind of power. But at one concrete point, it certainly does. That is why faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to move a mountain from its place. Faith here is not inner strength, and certainly not conviction about anything at all, but the fullness of relationship with God. It is that same fullness which, when directed toward creation, becomes the source of an infinitely powerful force, if only it is fully concentrated on something specific. But reaching that kind of concentration is not easy. No psychological techniques will help here.

This concentration is a derivative of that fullness of the life of the Kingdom which, in principle, has been opened after Christ's coming to everyone who seeks. It is the same fullness whose experience lets a person serve without counting merit: we have done what we were supposed to do; we are only servants who do not deserve a reward. It is the fullness in which one understands that every sin is absolutely destructive, and that, although sin is inevitable in the fallen world, complicity in it is always an existential catastrophe for a resident of the Kingdom. It is the fullness that is possible only in the Kingdom and without which there is no Kingdom. The fullness for which alone it makes sense to live.

Today we read the evangelist Luke's account of a somewhat mysterious dialogue about faith between the Lord and His disciples. At first glance...

Today we read the evangelist Luke's account of a somewhat mysterious dialogue about faith between the Lord and His disciples. At first glance, Christ's answer is hard to connect with the disciples' request that He increase their faith. Perhaps, as the evangelists often do, Luke reports Christ's words much more fully than the essence of the disciples' question. In such a situation, we should try to understand from what the Lord answers what the disciples had in mind. In addition, the evangelists often tell us about dialogues in which a person coming to Christ asks Him a question, while the Lord intentionally answers not the outward form of the question spoken aloud, but what deep in the heart moved the person to ask it. It is very possible that today we are seeing just such a dialogue.

So the disciples ask Him to "add" faith to them. The "increase" of the Synodal text renders a Greek word that, in an arithmetic sense, means addition rather than multiplication. So to speak, they ask Him to increase the quantity of faith, to give them more of it than they and other people have. Judging by Christ's answer, the disciples' request sounds like a request to sit at His right and left hand. The Lord says that the "quantity" of faith is not what matters. Even a small "quantity," faith the size of a mustard seed, in the Savior's words, transforms the world.

After this the Lord tells the disciples that a person should not expect a reward for doing what he is obliged to do. How does this thought agree with the previous one? Most likely the point is that the disciples, who have already grasped what the Lord says about the importance of faith for a person's salvation, are asking Him to give them faith that would "advantageously distinguish" them in God's eyes.

They have already understood that God needs not outward reverence, but faith. "See, we have left everything and followed You," Peter once said to Christ... Now the disciples, it appears, are asking Him to give them such faith that they could say: "See, we have great faith; what then will there be for us because of this?" It is precisely to such a question that the Lord answers with the words that faith capable of moving mountains is comparable to fulfilling one's duty before the Master and does not allow one to speak of merits. This is, of course, a very important revelation about God and the human person, especially if it is compared with the parable of the workers of the eleventh hour.

We love Christ very much, and often because of this love we feel so sorry for Him in His sufferings that we want...

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