Hearing The Word

A weekly newsletter delivering context and insight into the Sunday Gospels.

October 5, 2025

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."

The Lord replied,

"If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,

you would say to this mulberry tree,

'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

"Who among you would say to your servant

who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,

'Come here immediately and take your place at table'?

Would he not rather say to him,

'Prepare something for me to eat.

Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.

You may eat and drink when I am finished'?

Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?

So should it be with you.

When you have done all you have been commanded,

say, 'We are unprofitable servants;

we have done what we were obliged to do.'"

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Servants in Need of Renewal

~ Rev. Jordan J. Kelly, O.P.

Chaplain to the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters at the Convent of Divine Love + Philadelphia, Pa

Today’s Gospel brings to mind the word

of one of my teachers, Monsignor Kevin Irwin. He would often say to us, “… the context is the text.” The context of Chapter 17 of Luke’s Gospel, is complex. Thus, this pericope may be difficult to comprehend, but this a difficulty that makes the text rich in application.

Chapter 17 is a moment of renewal for the disciples. Chapter 17 confronts every itinerant preacher and apostle to remember the joy, and the intensity of the commitment which marked the beginning of their believing and serving. Chapter 17 harkens back to Chapter 13 as the disciples experienced exhaustion, discouragement, and disappointments which accompany being a preacher who constantly proposes the great promises of life in Christ. Some accept their preaching; others struggle to accept it or completely refuse the proposal of Christ. To keep proposing the God of Jesus Christ to closed ears and hardened hearts requires great inner – strength and total dependence upon God.

The disciples request of Jesus to “increase our faith” is exactly what they need to continue their mission: faith in the Father’s promise to rescue them from the exhaustion, opposition, and discouragement that is the result of being rejected. Does anything sound familiar to our contemporary experience? If our faith were but the size of a mustard seed . . . Christ assures us that He will do great things with our often struggling and small acts of faith. The smallest act of faith (the mustard seed) can move the most unmovable piece of foliage (the mulberry tree). What can it do for us?

Luke’s constant theme of service returns today. We are to serve without seeking recompense or reward – just as Christ selflessly and graciously serves us. Constantly following Christ and being renewed in Him, is how we become the servants we are meant to be.

The Power of Faith Wielded in Meekness



~ Matthew Gambino

Saint Teresa of Avila Parish + Norristown, Pa

While I’ve always admired the apostles’ comfort with speaking directly to Jesus, it seems the word “please” wasn’t in their vocabulary. In this Sunday’s Gospel, we hear the apostles not asking for faith politely, but practically demanding an “increase” of the faith they believed they already possessed in good measure. 

Jesus responds with two insightful, folksy tales.

The person with even small faith would be capable of doing great things, he says, such as uprooting a mulberry tree (it can grow 70 or 80 feet tall) and placing it in the sea at some distance, through only one’s word.

Such is the power of faith. The implication of the story is that the apostles don’t have this power. Faith can work wonders but for what should such divine power, wielded by flawed people, be used?

The answer lies in the model of the servant. Normally the servant does not expect to be served, but to serve. Jesus uses this image for two purposes.

First, the power inherent in strong faith is to be used in service of others. Second, service is to be grounded in humility.

Jesus uses a cultural norm – the servant who serves – to make a countercultural demand. The servant must not wield power for his or her own sake but to tend to the needs of others. The act of service, the giving of oneself to another, is reward enough, and nothing else is expected. The power of faith is expressed in meekness.