It can be hard to have faith. We might waver sometimes or feel our faith isn’t as strong as it should be. We ask why when bad things happen to people we love or when the world’s cruelty overwhelms us. In the first reading, the words seem as if they could be written today or many times throughout history.

“Why do you let me see ruin;
why must I look at misery?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and clamorous discord.”

The Lord tells the prophet to wait, to have faith. In the gospel, the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith. His response: Faith the size of a mustard seed can do the seemingly impossible. As with the servant in the parable, it’s our job to have faith, to trust in God and to do what we know we must to put that faith into action. We have to have faith in God and faith in ourselves to do what we can, where we are to make the world a more just and better place. We can be encouraged by the story of the mustard seed and let that seed flower and grow in our lives.

We can live out the words from Timothy in the second reading:

“For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.”

I pray that the spirit of power and love strengthens my faith even in the face of strife and clamorous discord.