Faith despite unheeded prayers

Jesus preaches using hyperboles and analogies. In order to properly interpret Jesus’ words, we need to identify the literary genre and figures of speech he employs. In our Gospel today, he likens faith to a tiny seed, such as a mustard seed, that can grow as big as a mulberry tree, known for its extensive root system. To have faith then is to be firmly rooted in God.

He then goes on to say that a person with faith ought to be able to command the mulberry tree to be uprooted and replanted in the sea. Clearly, a hyperbole. 

What might Jesus mean? Faith does not only involve assenting to the doctrines of the Catholic Faith, but submitting our entire selves to God. Jesus is assuring us that for the person of faith who opens oneself totally to God, God can do what seems impossible.

In the second half of our Gospel reading, Jesus employs disturbing language about masters and slaves. It is however important to note that Jesus is not concerned with the morality of slavery as a social institution, but uses the duties of a slave as an analogy for the tasks of Christians.

The Christian is sent by the Lord to serve. The Christian is one through whom the Lord astonishingly uproots mulberry trees and replants them where they cannot seemingly grow. The Christian is thus an instrument of God’s life-giving powers. The wonders of God’s interventions in history glorify not the prophet or the disciple, but to the Lord.

What might all this mean for us?

First, faith is openness to God — the antithesis of imposing upon God the task of fulfilling our petitions according to our expectations. In subtle ways, we turn the tables around and make ourselves masters of God whom we turn into an ATM machine to satisfy our needs.

Hard questions. Is our faith contingent on the fulfillment of our needs, the satisfaction of our wants? Is God real to us only insofar as the Lord intervenes in our lives according to our expectations? 

Second, faith is rooted in God’s reliable word. Faith believes in the eventual fulfillment of God’s promises — amidst darkness, uncertainty and delay. Like Habakkuk we cry out: “How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you … but you do not intervene” (Habakkuk 1:2). Nonetheless, underlying our complaints hopefully is a confidence that in God’s time and in God’s ways, the Lord will answer me. His promise “presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come.”

Hard questions. Where is the Lord in the face of unheeded prayers? A loved one who is not healed? A visa that is not granted? A board exam, that despite my hard work, I fail? Can we detect God’s presence amidst our frustrated expectations? Can we detect God’s presence within, in the graced transformation of ourselves — from fear to trust, restlessness to serenity, and cowardice to courage — despite the unchanged external situation?

Third, faith celebrates God’s fidelity to us through prayers of praise and through our witness to the gospel values. “Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord … our salvation” (Ps. 95:1). And so, “with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us”, the faithful will be able to “bear [their] share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God” (2 Tim. 1:8, 14).

Hard questions. Does faith consist in mere assent to the core beliefs of a Catholic? Or does our faith manifest itself in correct beliefs and moral actions? No wonder our collective disgust over allegedly corrupt politicians and entrepreneurs who may be regular Mass-goers but steal from the nation’s coffers money meant for the poor. Do we recognize our faith and our capacity to do good as gifts from God, as signs of God’s presence within, or as the fruit of moral athleticism, sheer human effort that has little room for God?

I recall a young physical therapist who for years waited to be granted a US visa. Finally, upon being granted one, his dreams of a brighter future started to be realized — or so he thought. He was assigned to a nursing home in an isolated suburb, taking care of cantankerous patients, performing debridement procedures on their bed sores. Isolated from family and friends, he regretted the day he left the Philippines. Then he learned his mother was diagnosed with cancer. He worked harder to be able to send money back home for her medical needs. When his mother’s cancer progressed, he decided to fly home to care for her. Upon inspecting her condition, he discovered that she was suffering from bed sores. He treated her bed sores and took care of her till her last moments.

His prayer for God to heal her were unheeded. Nonetheless, his faith in God deepened in the realization that the Lord sent him to the USA in order to learn to care for his mother as a physical therapist during her last months. His faith deepened in sensing the interior peace of his mother who had surrendered herself to God’s mercy. His faith deepened, for while his siblings’ petitions were not granted, they were brought closer to one another as they cared for their mother.

Unanswered prayers need not lead to the loss of faith; instead, can lead to a deepening of faith, a deeper sense of intimacy with the Lord.