Growing our faith

In today’s reflection on the daily mass readings, Fr Richard considers the importance of nurturing and growing our faith so that we might be a blessing to others

Readings for Thursday of the third week of Ordinary Time can be found here.

The great Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Pederewski, who also briefly served as his country’s prime minister after World War One, said this about his art: “If I miss one day of practice, I notice it. If I miss two days, the critics notice it. If I miss three days, the audience notices it.” Even a superb talent such as his needed daily nurturing if he was to continue to give of his very best.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is saying something similar about our faith. He uses these two phrases: “The amount you measure out is the amount you will be given”; and “for the man who has will be given more.” This is not quite as crude as saying “you get out what you put in”. Faith is not as transactional as that, and of course salvation is a free gift of God’s grace, not obtained by our own efforts. Nevertheless, our faith needs nurturing, no matter how long we have been at it, just like Pederewski and his piano playing. When we pay more attention to our prayer life, we will indeed find ourselves growing closer to God. When we spend a bit longer reading and studying the Scriptures, we find that we come to know him a little bit better. 

And what is all this for? Great musicians do not spend hours in practice to play alone in a room. They fill concert halls and give pleasure to hundreds. Jesus says that a lamp should not be hidden but put on the lampstand for all to see. We are called to grow and develop in our faith so that we might be that lamp on a stand, shining for all to see, and bringing others to know the love of God.