Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: 5th October 2025

Jesus and the Parable of the Mustard Seed

Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our first reading is part of the prophet Habakkuk's first and second complaint about God's apparent disregard for the sinful behaviour of Judah. It seems as though the Law and religious observance has no effect, on the lives of the people, instead there is a numbing quality to their religious observance and life which the prophet attributes to God's apparent silence towards them. However in answer to this complaint we find that one of the things being asked of everybody is fidelity to that Covenant bond with God even when things seem desolate. The Lord's answer to Habakkuk which comes in the form of an Oracle, and reminds him that all is not lost:

'For the vision is a witness for the appointed time,

a testimony to the end; it will not disappoint.

If it delays, wait for it,

it will surely come, it will not be late'.(Habakkuk 2:3)

Whilst the historical event that Habakkuk interprets as the answer to his complaint is the Babylonian defeat of Egypt at Carchemish (605 BC) which means that the Lord is going to send the armies of the Chaldean empire against Judah as punishment for their sins. We can move out of the historical setting and take hold of these words in another fashion for our lives today. They have an echo of hopeful joy which we also find in other prophets words, a hope that there will be appointed time which holds the answer to our prayers concerning particular needs and events, and even if this appears to be late in happening , we must learn to be patient with the Most High and trust that all will be well!

There is of course a real scenario of numb negativity unravelling in our world, we can focus directly on the trials, tribulations of the people in Gaza, but also the unjustified rise in anti-Semitism which we have all witnessed in the tragedy of the High Holy Day of Yom Kippur in Manchester. But there are also other things we do that cause pain, racial prejudice, religious bigotry, extreme cruelty to human and creature, slavery of one kind or another, the list goes on. In all of this we might well ask when will healing and peace come, when will the innocent and vulnerable receive justice? I have no answer except that of the Lord to Habakkuk, that is I trust that even in the darkness of sinful actions the Most Holy One has not deserted the widow and orphan, the injured and displaced of our world but will hear our prayer!

Looking at our second reading, perhaps Paul, writing to Timothy, might be of encouragement to us. He does not give us the answer to any one particular problem, but from his own vantage point of suffering, he does what we are called to do, that is reach out and support others in and for the love of Christ Jesus. Paul's words have resonance about them, kind, gentle-but-strong, filled with the gift of the Spirit: 'God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord",(2 Timothy 1;7-8a)

This calling to be those who witness to Christ is far from easy, Paul knows this and is trying to give support to us, he reminds us that we will have a share of hardship, but we are to trust in the faith and love that comes from Christ, and ask for the help of the ever present Holy Spirit, that we may receive strength to endure to the end!

The gospel is stark in its contrast, if we have faith then great things may happen, but we cannot claim our prayers as some potent force. For the sayings of Jesus familiar to us over the last few Sundays, which as commentators point out are peculiar to Luke, continue Jesus' response to the apostles' request to increase their faith (Lk 17:5-6.) Jesus reminds them and all of us that though we may be true Christian disciples, we can make no claim on God's graciousness; for in fulfilling the exacting demands of discipleship, we are only doing our duty.

Does that seem tough? I don't think so, what Jesus is saying should be an antidote to any in the Church or Society who want honour, admiration, fawning gratitude and kudos for what they are supposed to do. All of us are well aware of what Jesus thinks of those who seek honourifics and power, we are what we are called to be, servants of the servant Christ and that is what we are about, serving others, being careful and good stewards of our world, healers, lovers of the poor outcast and disposed, peacemakers and healers. So, let us get on with our gospel task then, going forward in trust and hope.

Lectio Divina

Standing on the threshold

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini SJ

Although we ourselves live in troubled times, every moment in history is different. It is therefore important that we put in the right context the warnings that Jesus gave to be vigilant, for the coming of the Kingdom was at hand. These warnings, still valid today, are about the theological, not temporal, imminence of the Kingdom; that means, for each one of us, the individual imminence in the mystery of our own death and, for the world, the imminence of God's judgment that awaits humanity.

Psalm 95

Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;

cry out to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before him with a song of praise,

joyfully sing out our psalms.

For the LORD is the great God,

the great king over all gods,

Whose hand holds the depths of the earth;

who owns the tops of the mountains.

The sea and dry land belong to God,

who made them, formed them by hand.

Enter, let us bow down in worship;

let us kneel before the LORD who made us.

For he is our God,

we are the people he shepherds,

the sheep in his hands.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice:

Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,

as on the day of Massah in the desert.*

There your ancestors tested me;

they tried me though they had seen my works.

Forty years I loathed that generation;

I said: "This people's heart goes astray;

they do not know my ways."

Therefore I swore in my anger:

"They shall never enter my rest.