Stay up to date on everything happening in Campus Ministry at St. Ambrose University.
Friday, October 4, 2019
10.6.19
Increase Our Faith
The other day I caught myself saying to someone, “I think the semester’s off to a good start.” Which is true, except that we’re already well past the “start” at this point. Next week is already midterms! If I had been paying more attention to the signs, I would have noticed this. I’m thinking particularly of the number of students with whom I have spoken in the last week or two who are feeling the full weight of the semester. The “honeymoon” is over and it’s down to business. This is the time of the semester when our students can probably most identify with the plea of the apostles to Jesus in the Gospel this Sunday: “Increase our faith!” Increase our faith that we get through this next paper, exam, project, game or other big event. Jesus’ response to the request of his apostles was to say, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.” Really? I don’t know about you, but I find this of little consolation. I think of the many times in my life that tried - I thought in genuine faith - to “uproot a tree” or two, but to no avail. Is it really my lack of faith? Perhaps. Or perhaps faith is more complicated than that. Maybe faith is not the power to manipulate God or reality, but the ability to accept God on God’s own terms and to accept certain realities in our lives. In short, it is the ability to trust - not blindly, not without basis, but precisely because God is God and we are not. In this sense, our students and all of us should pray, “Increase our faith!” Increase our ability to trust, especially when the going gets tough. --Fr. Thom
Have a question about a program or event going on in Campus Ministry? Got an idea for something you'd like to see happen? EMAIL US at ministry@sau.edu.
Follow us online for news, events, prayer and spiritual resources, plus much more:
The other day I caught myself saying to someone, “I think the semester’s off to a good start.” Which is true, except that we’re already well past the “start” at this point. Next week is already midterms! If I had been paying more attention to the signs, I would have noticed this. I’m thinking particularly of the number of students with whom I have spoken in the last week or two who are feeling the full weight of the semester. The “honeymoon” is over and it’s down to business. This is the time of the semester when our students can probably most identify with the plea of the apostles to Jesus in the Gospel this Sunday: “Increase our faith!” Increase our faith that we get through this next paper, exam, project, game or other big event. Jesus’ response to the request of his apostles was to say, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.” Really? I don’t know about you, but I find this of little consolation. I think of the many times in my life that tried - I thought in genuine faith - to “uproot a tree” or two, but to no avail. Is it really my lack of faith? Perhaps. Or perhaps faith is more complicated than that. Maybe faith is not the power to manipulate God or reality, but the ability to accept God on God’s own terms and to accept certain realities in our lives. In short, it is the ability to trust - not blindly, not without basis, but precisely because God is God and we are not. In this sense, our students and all of us should pray, “Increase our faith!” Increase our ability to trust, especially when the going gets tough. --Fr. Thom 
