Habakkuk 1:12-2:4
Psalm 9:9-14
Matthew 17:14-20
Observance: St Dominic, priest and friar (d. 1221)
The image of faith as a mustard seed is a familiar one to Christians. We may be used to it by now, and so it is worth, I think, to return to it again, since our Lord seemed to think it was so important.
He seems to almost contradict himself when he speaks to his disciples about why they could not heal this man’s son. They ask why they could not drive out the demon, to which Jesus answers: “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
I say this is almost a contradiction because at first, our Lord says “your problem is your little faith”. Then, he says “you should instead have faith the size of this little object”. What is it? Little faith, or faith like this little thing?
There is another place where our Lord refers to a mustard seed. Some chapters earlier, he spoke about how the kingdom of heaven is a like a mustard seed, which, though it is the smallest of all seeds, grows into the largest of plants, and the birds come and perch in its branches. There, his emphasis seems to be not on the size of the seed, but rather its potential for growth, and then that potential being realised.
And so when he teaches his disciples that their faith is too little, and they instead need faith like a little seed, I think he might be referring to this idea. Christians start in a place of tiny faith; this is good, this is all we need to “get into heaven”.
But Christ does not want us to stay there. His intention is that we grow in our faith. There is nothing about the speed of that growth, or in what direction, or anything like that. But since faith is the means by which we perceive God and the things of God, our faith should grow, so that we can perceive him more and more over the course of our lives.
And so let us ask ourselves: have we grown? How have we grown? In what way? Do we perceive God and the things of God more in our lives in any area? Where is he speaking to us more clearly than before? Where might we continue to grow?
I personally have discovered that if I set myself a target for spiritual growth, then spiritual growth happens, but not usually in the area I set for myself. The conclusion I have reached from those experiences is that God simply wants us to come to him ready to grow, and he will do the rest. So I encourage you: present yourselves to God, ready to grow, for it is the desire of our Lord that we do, and he will do it.