The Catholic Calendar for Monday, November 10, 2003
Thirty-second week in Ordinary Time
St. Leo the Great, pope, doctor of the Church

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Wisdom 1:1-7
Psalm 139:1-10
Luke 17:1-6

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

The imagery that Jesus uses in His teachings is so rich! Unfortunately, much is lost due to the changes in thinking between now and 2000 years ago.

Take, for instance, today's Gospel where Jesus tells us that if we had the faith the size of a mustard seed we could say to a sycamore, 'Be uprooted and transplanted into the sea,' and it would be done.

Quite a feat, we say. But we're only getting half the message. In old Jewish belief, the sycamore was a special tree because it was believed to have had the largest and deepest root system of all trees. So to the Jew of 2000 years ago Jesus statement about uprooting a sycamore is much more than 'quite a feat.' In fact it would be something quite larger than this.

And this gives us all an idea of the incredible power of faith. Yes, uprooting a tree and transplanting it in the ocean is quite an accomplishment, but it is even more so if it's a sycamore!

Our faith - a tremendous gift from God - is much stronger than we know!

- Don Claunch, sfo

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posted by joachim at 4:07 AM