405. Twenty-seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)

Meditations no. 612 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Like the Apostles, we need to ask the Lord to increase our faith.

THE APOSTLES said to the Lord: increase our faith. Adauge nobis fidem! With this simple request begins the Gospel text that we read today at Mass. The Apostles did not lack faith, for in fact they followed the Master. However, the reproach that Jesus made to them most often, with affectionate but clear words, referred precisely to faith. He had never told them that they did not have it, but he had repeatedly complained about their lack of faith.

They had witnessed the divine wonders that Christ wrought. They had received his doctrine with full hands. They glimpsed the inexhaustible happiness of God’s love. They guessed the great things that would be done with their fidelity. … But they knew they were poor men, lacking supernatural vision on so many occasions, still limited by a perspective that was too earthly. Their faith was weak; that is why they turn to the Lord with humility, with simplicity. They give us a lesson that St. Josemaría often reminded us of.

On one occasion, when asked how we can make our faith increase, he replied as follows: they know that faith is a theological virtue, just like hope and charity, which God freely infuses into the soul through Baptism. Therefore, in order to grow in these virtues, we must ask the Lord, as the Apostles did, when they said to him: adauge nobis fidem! (Lk 17:5), increase our faith!

I don’t care at all to tell you alone - the others are as if they didn’t know - that every day, at Holy Mass, without the sound of words, I usually ask the Lord to increase my faith. With my heart, when I hold him in my hands, I say to him: I believe that you are here, hidden under the sacramental species, with your Body, with your Blood, with your Soul, with your Divinity. And I add: adauge nobis fidem, spem, caritatem!, increase our faith, hope and love.

Like all virtues, faith admits of greater or lesser intensity, it can grow and strengthen or, on the contrary, weaken and almost extinguish. Jesus’ response to the Apostles clearly shows that the Lord is not satisfied with a mediocre, inoperative virtue, but expects a great, unbroken faith that translates into total trust in God’s grace and action. If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree: pluck and plant yourself in the sea, and it will obey you.

The Lord asks for a faith without limits. Those who have it see obstacles smoothed out, they grow in the face of difficulties. Jesus Christ makes this condition: that we live by faith, because later we will be able to remove the mountains. And there are so many things to be removed … in the world and, first, in our hearts. So many obstacles to grace! Faith, then; faith with works, faith with sacrifice, faith with humility. Because faith makes us omnipotent creatures. Hence, when we realize that our faith is insufficient - in the Christian fight, in work, in the apostolate - we have to go to the divine Master, like the Twelve. “Omnia possibilia sunt credenti” - All things are possible for those who believe. - These are the words of Christ.

“What are you doing, that you do not say to him with the apostles: ‘adauge nobis fidem!’

Faith in apostolic work.

THE WORDS of St. Paul to Timothy remind us that faith must also be safeguarded, in order to proclaim and teach it faithfully. Have as your norm the sound words that you heard from me with the faith and charity that we have in Christ Jesus. Keep the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. On our response of faith depends not only our own interior life, but also the apostolic fruit that by our vocation we are called to give. At the same time, it is true that when we teach Catholic doctrine and speak of God with conviction, our own faith is strengthened, stronger and more determined.

If we see difficulties that seem difficult to overcome, it is time to appeal to faith - I am not ashamed, because I know in whom I have believed, Paul wrote to Timothy - in order to continue in our apostolic work. By dint of time, of patient work, our Father tells us, we will raise our building until it is crowned with the lace and filigree of the crests. Courage, then, in our work! Even if it lacks shine, even if it seems sterile. What does it matter if winter covers our field with frost and ice, that everything seems to us as if it were dead? The flowery spring will come, the fruitful autumn, and then the activity that is now hidden will be revealed. Let us encourage ourselves to fight against the obstacles that obstruct our path; those we know and the unforeseen.

We should not be surprised that, at times, faith is put to the test. In the first reading we find the lament of the prophet Habakkuk: How long, Lord, will I ask for help without your listening to me? Sometimes we can have the impression that the interior life is as if at a standstill, even though we implore help from on high, or that the apostolic fruit is waiting. None of this should be a cause for concern. We must understand that the Lord desires to strengthen our trust in him and expects a constant and patient invocation from us. This is what this first reading from the Mass shows us. At the end, the prophet himself records the divine response. The Lord answered me by saying: “Write down the vision, engrave it clearly on tablets, so that it can be read at once. For the vision awaits its time, aspires to its end, but does not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, for it will surely come without fail.” He who has no upright soul will collapse, but the righteous will live by his faithfulness.

The humility with which the Apostles come to Jesus leads them to succeed in their request: it was a matter of faith that detachment that the Lord had asked of them in previous days. As it is a matter of faith, of trusting dedication into the hands of the Lord, progress in the interior life, the effectiveness of the apostolate, to always walk forward on our path, despite weaknesses and personal defects.

This is the path we must follow at all times, and particularly when we are threatened by the temptation of discouragement. In the face of the apparent sterility of the apostolate, you are assailed by the vanguards of a wave of discouragement, which your faith firmly rejects. … But you realize that you need more faith, humble, alive, and active.

You, who desire the salvation of souls, cry out like the father of that sick boy, possessed by the devil: “Domine, adiuva incredulitatem meam!”

Do not hesitate: the miracle will be repeated.

Faith is strengthened in contradictions.

The Gospel narrates that on one occasion a great storm broke out on the Sea of Tiberias, so that the boat of the Apostles was on the verge of shipwreck. The disciples woke up Jesus, who was sleeping, crying, “Lord, save us, for we are perishing!” Jesus, standing up, calmed the storm and reproached the Apostles: “Why are you frightened, you of little faith?

The same thing can happen to us too. For these moments it is the advice of St. Augustine: “Let each one question Christ in his faith; but faith is asleep. No wonder you fluctuate, because Christ is asleep in the ship. Jesus was asleep in the boat, and so the ship capsized between the waters and the great storm. The heart trembles when Christ sleeps. But Christ is always watchful. What, then, does”Christ sleep”? That your faith sleeps. Why do you still stir in the tempest of doubt? Awaken Christ, awaken your faith.”

In the difficulties of the interior life, if we persevere in our supplication, we will receive the Lord’s answer. An interior push will inevitably come in due time that facilitates daily fidelity or some apostolic result. It is precisely the most difficult moments that are particularly appropriate occasions to repeat that simple prayer of the Apostles, asking Christ for a stronger and more decisive faith.

This is the lesson that we can draw from our Father’s prayer in moments of special difficulty, during the months he lived as a refuge in a diplomatic mission in Madrid, to flee religious persecution. After considering how God has made himself present in the most difficult moments of the Church’s history, our Founder added: As in the thirteenth, as in the sixteenth, God has not cut off his hands. Non est abbreviata manus Domini! (Is 59:1); the power of God, who continues to grant new wonders on behalf of men, has not been diminished. Now, the Lord desires to revive the apostolate of the first Christians, he wants the world to return to the esteem and practice of the virtues that distinguished our first brothers and sisters in the faith. And he chooses poor men without talent, without economic position, without prestige, without virtues, because this is always the characteristic of God’s works: the narrowness of the beginnings, the smallness of those who initiate them. And he asks of them the discretion, the dedication, the zeal of the first faithful.

He has entrusted this mission to us: without taking us out of the world, leaving us where we were, so that we may direct all glory to Him and bring souls to Him. How can we not become mad with love? How can we not melt away in affections of humility and gratitude? Et in meditatione mea exardescit ignis (Psalm 38:4). In prayer the fire of my soul is kindled: may each one pour out his affections on God, thinking of the great mission he has entrusted to us. May each one think about his or her response: my life and the Work, my life and my Christian vocation, my life and the formation of those who come, my life and proselytism.

What an immense field for the activity of an apostolic soul, with our spirit, with our peculiar characteristics! What do contradictions, or obstacles, or my own personal incapacity matter? I already know that I am incapable of the slightest good thought of myself without divine help (cf. 2 Cor 3:5). But the Lord is at our side.

The wonders wrought by the Apostles, by so many generations of Christians, will be repeated, if our faith is great. Do you remember the son of the widow of Naim? Adulescens, lukewarm, arises! (Lk 7:14). Arise! And he arose. Miracles that Christ continues to perform now, through you (…).

We can all go out, we can all get up. … And if we do not have enough faith, we can say with the Apostles: adauge nobis fidem! (Lk 17:5). Let us ask the Lord, now, that no one who comes to the Work will lack faith.

The Blessed Virgin, to whom we turn at the end of our prayer, is the Teacher of faith and will help us to grow in this virtue.