Dear friends

When I saw the mustard tree, and its seeds, while doing biblical archeology in the holy land, I was surprised. I had been warned by the Gospels, but I never thought they could be so accurate: the seeds were very small; indeed the smallest I ever seen.

All the teaching of Christ came back to my mind and I wanted to share with a close friend of mine: an encloistered nun in Italy. She was a Poor Clair I met before leaving Italy. I was attracted by her because our lives were complementary: she was the contemplation my life needed, an my missionary vocation was the reason for such a strict life like hers. We were the two different beats of the heart: contraction representing silence and prayer, expansion representing the missionary activity.

I sent her few seeds and I added a little note: “If you only had faith the size of one of these seeds..”

Some time later I received a letter with a picture inside; it was the interior of her monastery, with a tiny garden in the middle. At the center of it there was a luxuriant tree standing 9 feet tall. It was a mustard tree. On the back Sister wrote: ”you see?” I learned that I could ever challenge a woman, especially a nun!

When the apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith, they were most likely asking not for a primitive version of the Apostles’ Creed but rather for deeper trust in God and in Jesus.

In the context of Luke’s Gospel, the apostles’ request and Jesus’ response come toward the end of the long journey narrative. The one we heard telling about how one has to forgive seventy seven times, has to hate is very self, become like a little child in order to enter the Kingdom of God. It was too much for the apostles who saw their family world collapse under such unheard-of requests by Jesus.

It is in this context that the apostles asked Jesus: “increase our faith.” Jesus does not explain what faith is, but he gives them an example of the power of faith.

Faith is not the blind acceptance of abstract truths, but the childlike trust of somebody that surrenders to somebody else experienced as trustworthy.

A read once that a young man asked the old monk: "Father, do you still do battle with the devil?" The old monk replied: "No, I used to, when I was younger, but now I have grown old and tired and the devil has grown old and tired' with me. I leave him alone and he leaves me alone." "So your life is easy then?" remarked the boy. "Oh no," replied the monk, "it's much worse, now I wrestle with God!"

When we were baptized we were anointed with a little oil called the “oil of the catechumens”. It was a reminder that Christian life is a strife, and that we to fight, to wrestle with a strong adversary.

Genesis describes an incident where Jacob wrestled with a spirit for a whole night and that spirit turned out to be God. What a perfect icon for prayer! A human being and God, wrestling in the dust of this earth! Doesn't that describe the human struggle?

Jesus gives himself over in the Garden of Gethsemane only after first begging his Father for a reprieve. We see how the great figures of our faith are not in the habit of easily saying: "Thy will be done!" but often, for a while at least, counter God's invitation with: "Thy will be changed!"

We honor neither ourselves nor the Scriptures when we make things too simple. Human will doesn't bend easily, nor should it, and the heart has complexities that need to be respected. God, who built us, understands this and He is up to the task of wrestling with us and our resistance.

One has to learn to be bold with God." This "holy boldness" comes not at the beginning of the spiritual journey, but more towards the end of it, when we are intimate enough with God to precisely be "bold," as friends who have known each other for a long time have a right to be.

We understand now the prayer of the apostles in today’s reading: “Lord, increase our faith!” and we make it our own as we continue the struggle with God with the prayer that He should be the winner!

We pray that in this struggle, not we, but God be the winner. We are tired of fighting against Him the whole of our life and we feel the time has come to surrender in trust, like a child