Increased Faith (27th Sunday, C): Overcoming an Obstacle of Ego-Centric Consciousness for Humbler Servantship with More Powerful Service

You provide service to someone. But the recipient of your service never acknowledges your dedication and hard work. If that’s the case, wouldn’t you be disheartened? Wouldn’t you be so discouraged to continue serving this person if the recipient of your service never expresses his or her appreciation to you?

It is human nature that we want to be recognized and appreciated for what we do. Positive recognition and expressed appreciation for what you action reinforce it, according to the behaviorism in psychology. As a living will die if it is deprived of life sustenance materials, such as water and food, behavior will extinguish if there is no reinforce.

Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel Reading of the 27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C, Luke 17:5-10, however, goes rather contrary to this human nature in the behaviorism of psychology. Basically, Jesus teaches that we do what we do not to seek recognition but simply it gives meaning and joy for simply doing what we do. As disciples of Jesus, motives and reinforcers of our behaviors are not extrinsic but rather intrinsic, stemming from our increased faith. Therefore, whether someone recognize and expresses his or her appreciation of what we do, we just do what we are called to, because it gives us immeasurable meaning and joy to know that our actions are bearing good fruits abundantly – the consequences of our acts lead to the realization of God’s will, namely, the coming of His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. And this is a sure sign of “increased faith”, which is an indication of matured faith, which shifts our psychospiritual gravitational center from ego to Christ.

Increased faith enables us to deny ourselves so that we can bear our cross, a prospect of martyrdom (e.g. Luke 9:23). To put it in Buddhist term, as our faith increases, we are more likely to attain anatman (anatta), which is understood as the state of no ego.  This is freedom from ego-centric consciousness, which Adam and Eve gained as a result of committing the Original Sin, as tempted to have God-like perception, as they hid their genital areas (Genesis 3:6-13).

This ego-centric consciousness has been at the root of all of our sins. And this makes it difficult to follow Jesus and to do what he calls us to do.

In order to overcome this psychospiritual pathology of ego-centric consciousness, which is a major obstacle to attain Christ-centered life, the Gospel Reading (Luke 17:5-10) calls us to increase our faith to make us humble servants, who seek nothing for themselves but totally dedicate every ounce of their works to the Lord.

Because faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:9), in order to attain the increased faith, we must let the Holy Spirit fill us. As in the Second Reading (2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14), Paul tells his primary successor, Timothy, that the Holy Spirit is of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). And this power of the Holy Spirit, imbuing faith, is as powerful as uprooting a mulberry tree and plant it in the bottom of the ocean without making the one who is filled with the Holy Spirit looking big but keeping him or her as tiny as a mustard seed, for humility (i.e. Luke 17:6).

The increased faith, which comes through the powerful Holy Spirit (i.e. Acts 1:8) is also characterized with love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7), both of which are essence of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Therefore, we become more patient in waiting for God’s promised action to take place with our unshaken trust, as experienced by Habakkuk in the First Reading (Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4). And because love is of the Holy Spirit and a dimension of the multifaceted fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22), as our faith increased through the Holy Spirit, our love grows stronger, and making us more patient and less ego-centric/self-seeking (i.e. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5). This is why the increased faith makes us humbler to a point of self-deprecating as “unprofitable servant”(Luke 17:10).

In making petitioning prayers, we tend to ask God out of our ego-centric intention. For example, we pray, “Lord, increase my income!”, “boost my reputation!”, “elevate my social status!” and so forth.  Making such petitions in our prayers is a sign of immature faith or no faith.  If this is the case with you, then, you do need to cry out to the Lord, “Increase my faith, O Lord!” with full understanding of the consequences of the increased faith, such as self-deprecation for humility and self-denial for egolessness or what Buddhists sees as anatman (anatta).

As our faith increases, our ego shrinks, making our visibility as tiny as a mustard seed. But, the increased faith also makes our works of service as powerful as uprooting and transplanting it at the ocean bottom!

And this is what Christian life – being a disciple of Christ – means.