The Ascension of the Lord Cycle A

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

Doubters Are Not Punished

We all have come across persons who are doubters, people who doubt whether such and such can be true or can be done. Our own parents were once doubters. They doubted as they looked at us taking our first steps. They doubted whether we could walk without falling down for several feet.

We ourselves are doubters. We doubted whether we could pass our quizzes, our exams, the assignments given us by our teachers. Some of us doubted whether we would ever graduate given the obstacles that lay across our path before graduation.

We doubted whether our girlfriend or boyfriend would accept us. We doubted whether we would marry the person we loved. Some of us doubted whether we would have children after a childless marriage of some months or years.

There were also famous doubters. One of these turned the whole world of philosophy upside down. What was plain to most of us, namely that we exist, he doubted. He even doubted that he existed. After some days of doubting whether he existed, he concluded: I doubt, therefore I exist. Later he refined this to the famous sentence, cogito, ergo sum, meaning, I think, therefore I am. His name is Rene Descartes and his name is known by every engineer through the Cartesian coordinates, the horizontal and vertical lines in a graph.

There is only one person I know who never doubted. That person knows all things and knows the exact capacity of each of us. He knows exactly what we can do and expects us to do what we can do. And yet this person never looks down on persons who doubt like us.

This person who never doubts is the center of our Gospel reading today. Before leaving physically planet Earth he instructed his disciples through certain women that they were to go to a mountain in Galilee where they would see him.

So the eleven disciples went to that mountain and there they saw Jesus. The second sentence in our Gospel reading poses a problem. It says in the version we are using for Mass which is the New American Bible Revised Edition or NABRE, When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.  The problem is that this sentence says the eleven disciples worshiped Jesus but they also doubted. How could that happen, worshiping Jesus and yet at the same time they also doubted? We would think that because they worshiped Jesus they no longer had any doubt as to who was the one appearing before them.

This sentence has been so problematic that there have been several different translations of it. Most of the translations follow the Authorized Version which says, “And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted." In this translation it says that the eleven disciples did worship Jesus but some of them doubted. The translators here avoided a contradiction, worshiping and at the same time doubting. It was a contradiction for these translators that the eleven disciples would worship Jesus and at the same doubted. So they only wrote that some, that is, not all who worshiped Jesus doubted. The problem with this translation is that there is no equivalent of the word "some" in the original Greek. The pronoun "they" is emphasized there, referring to the ones who worshiped, that is, the eleven disciples.

Before our translation was revised, that is, in the first edition of the New American Bible, we have this translation: "At the sight of him, those who entertained doubts fell down in homage". This translation also tries to remove the contradiction. The doubt of the eleven was not simultaneous with their worship but was prior to this act of homage. They had doubted before, but now they worshiped Jesus. The problem with this translation is that the clause which has the verb "doubt" follows, not precedes, the clause with the word "worship" and the tense used in “doubt” is just the same as the tense used in “worship”.

So, our translation in our Mass reading is correct, “When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted”, meaning, they worshiped Jesus but at the same time they also doubted.

So some commentators explain how this could be, the acts of worshiping and doubting at the same time.

One commentator explains this using the imagery in the poem of Robert Frost “The Road Not Taken.” A "traveler comes to a fork in the road, and hesitates, knowing that his choice will make all the difference, but not knowing which fork would be the better choice.” This is a very good explanation because the verb used here “distazo”  means “twice” or “two ways.” or hesitate. The commentator adds, "That is the experience of these eleven disciples when they see Jesus.  They want to believe—and they do believe—but they are torn.  Knowing that Jesus died, they hesitate to believe their eyes when (they) see him alive again." (From Richard Niell Donovan in SermonWriter)

Another commentator interprets the simultaneous acts of worshiping and doubting this way. In this case the desire and joy of the disciples made them doubt the truth of what they saw. For them it was too good to be true. This was the source of their doubt. They were happy to worship him but deep inside they were hesitant to think that this was all really happening because of the joy they were experiencing. (Benson)

Whatever the interpretation is, the fact recorded by Matthew is that the eleven disciples worshiped but doubted what was happening to them.

And here is the wonder of the attitude of Jesus. He knew that the eleven disciples were doubting, were hesitating to think that all that was happening was true, and yet right there and then he gave them the greatest work on earth, a work greater than that accomplished by the greatest conquerors, even Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar or Napoleon Bonaparte, greater than that accomplished by the greatest philosophers since the time of Socrates. Jesus gave these doubting eleven the greatest work that even we cannot think of.

Listen to what Jesus told them to do. "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

They were told by Jesus to make all nations his disciples. They were told to put all these nations, baptize them, immerse them into the life and power and glory of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. And they were to teach them all that Jesus had commanded them, all the wisdom of the ages were to be passed by them from Jesus to these nations.

But that is the essence of Jesus' attitude to doubters. He does not condemn them. He loves them and he is patient with them. He does not punish them.

We can cite the case of Abraham, our father in faith. When Abraham doubted that he could have a child in his old age, and followed the advice of Sarah his wife to take her maidservant and produce a child by her, we do not find that the Lord condemned Abraham for this. Instead he blessed Abraham’s child Ismael by this maid servant, saying, "I will make of him a great nation" (Genesis 21:18).

When Abraham's wife Sarah doubted whether she could conceive a child in her old age and laughed because she had already stopped her monthly periods, the Lord did not punish her. He affirmed that Sarah would have a son.

Then we can go straight to the New Testament where this same verb of doubting was used by Matthew. When Peter doubted that he might be drowned because of the waves, did Jesus punish him and left him to fend for himself? Not at all! Matthew wrote, “Jesus at once stretched out his hand and caught him." (14:31)

That is Jesus, the friend of doubters. Perhaps that is why he honored Rene Descartes and put his name in all books of geometry and engineering. By the way this Rene Descartes produced a very different proof for the existence of God, a proof which was not based on what we see around us, but on what we think inside of us.

Do we doubt our ability to do something for the Lord? The Lord does not doubt in our ability. In the first place he was the one who created that ability in us. He knows that we can do what he tells us to do.

Jesus has ascended to heaven. But he has not left us helpless. He has left us with this comforting thought that he believes in us, even if we do not believe in ourselves.

In the first reading he tells us that he will empower us to use whatever ability he has given us to do his work, "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

In the second reading Paul tells us through his letter to the Ephesians, that we inherit God's riches of glory, the surpassing greatness of his power, filling us in every way so that we can do what Jesus wants us to do.

Let us pray to Jesus, the friend of doubters. We bow our heads.

Jesus, you are the friend of doubters. You do not punish them. Instead you rescue them from their doubts. We are the doubters. We doubt we can do the work you tell us to do because it is too great for us, making all the nations your disciples, making them learn of you always, putting all of them into the life and power of the Blessed Trinity. But you do not doubt our ability because you empower us with your Spirit. Help our unbelief. Help our doubting minds and hearts. Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.

Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle C

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

Faith That Uproots a Tree

We have heard about a faith that moves mountains. We have not so much as heard about a faith that uproots a tree. But our Gospel reading today talks about a faith which uproots a tree. We heard Jesus say in our Gospel, “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."

The faith that moves mountains is from Matthew's Gospel where Jesus says, "I assure you, if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you would be able to say to this mountain 'Move from here to there'' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible for you." (17:20). This was echoed by Paul in his chapter on love. He wrote "if I have faith great enough to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:2). This faith has been understood by many as moving or getting rid of huge obstacles or great difficulties in life, the mountain representing these obstacles or difficulties. There have been reports of literal, physical mountains moved by men who exercised great faith, following Jesus' statement. The most famous of these is about the Mokattam mountain moved by a certain St. Simon the Tanner to prove before a caliph or Muslim leader that Christianity was the true religion founded by Jesus. There is also a story about St. Gregory the Wonder Worker who moved a mountain to give place for a church building.

But we have no story of a tree being uprooted and planted in a sea by the faith of a person. Some scholars think that Luke here uses a story by Jesus about the mustard seed which represents faith in the Gospel of Mark which also talks about moving a mountain (11:22-23). Instead of choosing the mountain his version is about a tree, the sycamine tree which is a wild fig or mulberry in our lectionary.

But I think the Church wants us to learn about faith in this Gospel reading because this is also the topic in the first and second readings. Primarily this is the faith of Jesus. Only secondarily is it the faith of the apostles and our faith.

In the second reading we heard Paul's words to Timothy: "Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." We see here that faith and love are in Christ Jesus.

In the first reading we heard the prophet Habakkuk say "the just one, because of his faith, shall live." In the Acts of the Apostles Jesus is given the title "the Just One". As the just one He lived by faith, like us.

It is a little bit difficult for us to think that Jesus lived by faith because we have tended to view only his divinity. He was indeed a divine person but when he was on earth he was fully a man, completely like us but without sin, as the Letter to the Hebrews says (4:15).

In the third reading or the Gospel we heard the apostles asking Jesus, “Increase our faith.” The sense in the original words used "prosthes heymin" is "Give more to us" faith. It is as if the apostles said to Jesus, "We know you have plenty of faith, Jesus. Give us more of your faith".

Jesus did not reply, "Here, take more of my faith." But he said, “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."

In effect Jesus told the apostles, ‘There is no need for me to give you more of my faith. What is important is that you have real faith, even if it is as small as the seed of a mustard. If you have this living faith you can uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea by just your word.'

Then Jesus proved to the apostles that they had this faith already. The succeeding parable shows this. If they had a servant, Jesus said, coming from work in the field, they would not say to this servant, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’. Rather they would say, ‘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’. If you can say this to your servant with full expectancy that your servant will follow your instruction you have this faith you need to uproot a tree. But having done so, say ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done only what we were obliged to do.’

Jesus is telling us that faith is simply obedience to the word of God.

Now our question is, Why did the apostles request Jesus to increase their faith? This was because they found it impossible to do what Jesus required of them without great faith. In the preceding verse but which is not in our Gospel reading Jesus told them to forgive even seven times an offender who says to them "Sorry". The word seven here signifies many or all the time. The apostles, like most of us, found this repugnant to do, to forgive an offender who has sinned against us many times or all the time. So they asked for Jesus to give them more of his faith to forgive such an offender.

In plain language we would now say, ‘You find this repugnant and difficult to do, to forgive your enemy who sins against you all the time? Just tell them that they are forgiven and they are forgiven. It will not be impossible for you. You have this faith to forgive if you obey Jesus' words. It is as simple as that.’

There is a curious detail about this mulberry tree that Jesus said we can uproot and plant in the sea if we have faith. I got this curious detail not from a professional commentator of the Bible but from John Quintanilla, a kind of Christian business man in Texas, USA. This John said that the reason why Jesus chose this mulberry tree in his parable is because it illustrates the harm done by unforgiveness. First, this tree has deep roots which are hard to kill. Unforgiveness is like that, it bores deep into our souls, difficult to take out. Secondly, this tree was so common around the land of Jesus that people used it for coffin. This signifies that unforgiveness leads to spiritual death. Thirdly, according to Quintanilla the fruit of this tree is bitter. It can only be eaten bit by bit because of its bitterness. Unforgiveness eats away our souls bit by bit almost unnoticed by us. And fourthly, the fruit of this tree is pollinated only by being stung by a wasp. Unforgiveness stings our hearts and spreads the fruit of unforgiveness around us. More and more people become unforgiving.

Interesting detail, thanks to John Quintanilla of Texas. Back to our readings.

Our readings tell us that Jesus has faith. Jesus tells us that we have faith already if we can command and obey a command. Faith is simply obeying God's word. The famous Ralph Waldo Emerson has this very relevant statement from his essay on the spiritual laws. He wrote, "The whole course of things goes to teach us faith. We need only obey. There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word."

Let us pray. Lord Jesus, you tell us we have already the faith necessary to uproot unforgiveness in our life. Lead us to use this faith by the guidance of your Spirit. Right now we forgive all those who have hurt us. Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.