In the Gospel Reading, Jesus says that if you have faith even as big as a mustard seed, and that is very small, you could command trees and they would obey you. From this, it is clear that the faith any of us has is not even a very small amount.

That’s not the only disheartening thought in the Gospel Reading. It gets worse. No matter how much faith you have, as the Gospel Reading makes plain, you are still highly unsatisfactory. However hard you work in the service of the Lord, Jesus says, at the end of the day you should say to yourself, I am an unprofitable servant of the Lord’s.

This isn’t a good thought to have before going to bed, is it? And it does make it hard to get out of bed in the morning: Oh boy, another day to be inadequate, unsatisfactory, and unprofitable! That thought, dripping against the mind all day long, is depressing.

You can see why the prophet in the First Reading would say to the Lord, “How long, O Lord!” He is talking about the sins of others, but our own sins can be as hard for us to bear. How long indeed!

But here is the thing to notice. The First Reading says that the just will live by faith. Real living is joyous, not depressive. That’s why the claim in the First Reading is that the just shall live by faith. The real living effected by faith is still to come.

And here’s another thing to see. The First Reading doesn’t mention how much faith you need in order to live. So, apparently, any amount is enough. Your faith doesn’t have to be even mustard seed size. You will still live, really live, as long as you have any.

Wait for it, the Lord says; the just shall live by faith—even faith so little it isn’t as big as a mustard seed.

So maybe waiting in trust for that joyous real life is faith, at least faith almost as big as a mustard seed.

However little faith that is, if it brings a life of joy in the Lord, it is a lot, isn’t it? And that is itself a joyful thought.

Eleonore Stump