Luke 17, 5-10: ‘The apostles said to the Lord: Increase our faith. ………. And so it is with you; when you have done everything prescribed for you, say: ‘We are useless servants; we have done what we had to do.

We could call this passage of the Gospel: the Gospel of the Apostles novitiate! Christ gives them a famous lesson in humility! Wasn’t it necessary to transform fragile presumptuous people, dreamers of first places, into humble bearers of the Good News? His teaching can be summed up in two complementary propositions:

– You, my good apostles, need God.
– But God wants to need you!

And it is these apostles, these ‘lucky ones’ of faith, who say to him, with a feeling of infinite poverty: Increase our faith! These are comforting words for us, who so often complain about our lack of faith and our doubts. We, who have ten times as many reasons to cry out to the Lord: Increase our faith. Yes, we need God. Faith is a GIFT from God. We shouldn’t forget that. It is a gift.

Of course, there is a part of faith that comes from men and women: we need to cultivate a deep desire to seek the truth, and great loyalty to recognise it through the signs and winks of God. But there is also, and above all, God’s part: Firstly, in the sense that he places on our path the traces and signs of his presence.

But above all through his grace of illumination, which enables men and women of good faith to recognise and decode these signs.

Can we imagine Mother Teresa saying to Jesus: You see, what I’ve done for you, give me a sweet death and a good place up there? Isn’t being a servant to the point of total selflessness exactly what Jesus himself was on earth?

The other words of the Gospel: ‘You are useless servants’ must have been difficult for the apostles to digest. Here’s what’s clear: when you’ve worked hard for the kingdom.

When you’ve sacrificed cosy evenings with family or friends to go and host meetings. When you’ve given your time and money to the cause. When you’ve spent a lifetime devoting yourself to the Church: you’re useless servants! is not necessarily what you’d like to hear! Fortunately, the Gospel also speaks of those faithful and efficient servants to whom the Master will give joy. But these are precisely the servants who have understood that their action is only useful and effective if it is made fruitful by God’s action.
Without me you can do nothing,’ Christ tells us. But He could have added: With me, you can work miracles.

You are useless servants; but if you allow yourselves to be loved by God, I will no longer call you servants but my friends.

So, useless servants that we are, let us become humble servants, because we are animated, illuminated and transfigured by the Spirit of Jesus.

Marco Cattaneo, Director