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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider If you have faith the size of a mustard seed…

If you have faith the size of a mustard seed…

Published Aug 11, 2023 04:16 pm

REFLECTIONS TODAY

Gird your loins

The mustard seed, according to the historian and naturalist Pliny the Elder, was the most invasive of all garden plants (Natural History, 19.170- 171). It could get over walls, into a neighboring field, and just about everywhere. Once it is sown, it is almost impossible to get the place free of it. It is hard to get rid of it. Once it has taken root, it cannot be removed. It grows of its own impetus, and nobody can stop it. These characteristics of the mustard seed make it a good metaphor for things representing tenacity and possibility. It appears that the disciples do not have even the smallest faith, for if they had, they would have been able to cure the boy. Faith does not limit possibilities, for it is anchored in God with whom nothing is impossible. Let us ask God for the seed of faith. Like the mustard seed, faith begins small yet grows to great proportion. God’s grace and self-surrender will soon make our faith grow big and strong.

Gospel • Matthew 17:14-20 
A man came up to Jesus, 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 the boy 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.”

Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2023,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.

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