[00:00:05] Hello, my name is Sally Moriarty-Flask. Welcome to: From His Word to Our Hearts, my weekly Bible Study podcast. Together we will explore the readings to be proclaimed at the Catholic Mass on Sunday, October 5, 2025, the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
This week's episode is entitled: We Are Unworthy Servants and these readings remind us that our duty is to love God and do whatever he commands.
As we journey through the readings this week, consider the following:
God offers each of us the gift of faith, but we must accept that gift. We must allow it to take root in our hearts and grow, not necessarily into imposing monoliths… the size of a mustard seed is sufficient. After all, what's important is not how big we can make our faith grow, but what God does with the faith we have. Our duty is nothing more than to love God and do whatever he commands us to do. So, how do we hold fast to that simple duty?
[00:01:21] Let's begin.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you for the gift of faith you bestow on each of us. Help us to nurture that precious gift so that we can serve you in love and do whatever you command us to do in this world. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:01:48] Now that we've opened our hearts in prayer, let's listen to what God is telling us in the Scriptures.
Our gospel this week is from Luke 17: 5-10.
[00:01:59] “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ And the Lord said, ‘If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, “Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,” and it would obey you. Will any one of you, who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep, say to him when he has come in from the field, “Come at once and sit down at table”? Will he not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, and put on your apron and serve me, till I eat and drink; and afterward you shall eat and drink”? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”’”
Last week we finished chapter 16 of Luke's Gospel, and this week we begin with verse five of chapter 17, which means there were four verses we didn't hear. So, what did we miss in in those verses? Well, we missed Jesus warning his Apostles about sin and punishment, but balancing those warnings with talk of repentance and forgiveness. That's a lot in just four verses. So, it's no wonder that the Apostles make this particular request at this particular time. And remember, as Jesus is drawing closer to Jerusalem for this last time, his teachings are becoming more straightforward.
So, let's listen to what Jesus has to say…
“The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’”
As I just said, Jesus' Apostles make this request in response to his words about sin and punishment. But notice - Jesus sort of sidesteps an answer and instead will go on to assure his Apostles that even a small amount of faith holds great power because it's not what we do with faith that matters - it's what God can do with our faith.
“And the Lord said, ‘If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed,’”
In biblical times, the mustard seed was often used as a metaphor for something small and insignificant. Jesus is not offering a lesson in botany here; he's employing a metaphor that would have been familiar to any 1st century Galilean.
“you could say to this sycamine tree,”
[00:04:47] Sycamine trees are not only mentioned in classical Hebrew and Greek literature, but they were a common sight in 1st century Palestine. The sycamine tree was also known as the sycamore fig or the fig-mulberry tree. It could grow to a height of 30 ft or more and was very hardy thanks to its extremely deep root structure. It did - in fact - have one of the deepest root structures of any type of tree in the Middle East. The NAB, by the way, translates that as mulberry, which is sort of unfortunate because the idea of a mulberry bush tends to minimize the impact of this simile for our modern minds. So, let me read the entire sentence again, adding on that concluding phrase.
[00:05:38] “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, ‘Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
[00:05:52] So, when Jesus says to the Apostles that someone whose faith might appear insignificant would nevertheless be strong enough to impact such a deep rooted tree, that would have been quite impactful. It would be akin to saying to any one of us that faith the size of a bacteria would be enough to tell a giant sequoia (one of the redwoods on the west coast) to lift itself up out of Muir woods and plant itself in San Francisco Bay next to the Golden Gate Bridge. Of course, Jesus isn't actually saying any of us should do that, that would be detrimental to the tree. But what he is saying is that confidence in God's plan and purpose gives great power to our lives.
[00:06:49] Such confidence enables us to revel in every joy but also strengthens us to endure every trial.
[00:07:02] “Will any one of you, who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep, say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down at table?’”
The social divide between servant and master was better understood in Jesus’ time than it is today. Although for us, we might compare it to hiring a service to clean our house or mow our lawn, and when they were finished, inviting those workers to sit down at our dining room table so we could serve them a multi-course meal on our finest china. There's nothing wrong with doing that if that's what someone chose to do. But it's not the typical arrangement between a homeowner and workers they've hired to do a service.
[00:07:49] “Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and put on your apron and serve me, till I eat and drink; and afterward you shall eat and drink?’”
[00:08:01] That would have simply been the way things were done in Jesus' time… servants were assigned specific duties throughout the day, and their own comfort was never addressed until after the master of the household was served.
One other thing I want to mention here… the words “prepare supper for me” should have distinctly Eucharistic overtones, which, which is significant since the Apostles are precisely the ones to whom the Eucharist will be entrusted at the Last Supper.
“Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?”
The answer is, of course not! Servants did whatever tasks they were assigned without any expectation of gratitude from their Master.
“So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”
Jesus is the Master in this parable, and the servants are the Apostles. The Apostles, by virtue of their ministry, are to do the work Jesus commands them to do - the work of the Church - without expecting any type of gratitude or reward in this life. That will come in the next life, but not necessarily in this life.
[00:09:32] And really, Jesus is teaching his Apostles - and their successors - what true service will mean for them:
When he says “plowing” he means preaching and teaching the Gospel…
When he says “tending sheep” he means being pastors and ministering to the flock entrusted to their care….
When he says “put on your apron” he means serving others through the Sacraments and the outreach work of the Church.
[00:10:14] We have to keep in mind that those words are directed to us as well… we are also unworthy servants, and we have the need to serve God out of gratitude for his goodness towards us. God has no need of our service, but we have the need and the desire to serve God.
[00:10:38] God gives each of us the gift of faith; therefore, our DUTY is to spread the Gospel message, through our words and actions and we shouldn't be congratulated for simply doing our duty.
God is our master - the master of our time, our talents, our very selves - and we must hold fast to our duty and do what he commands us to do… without complaint, without resentment, without any sense of entitlement, but with thankfulness and praise.
[00:11:23] In this world, we ARE unworthy servants doing our duty, serving God and others with no expectation of gratitude or reward. But if we do our duty, we will be honored guests at the heavenly banquet where we will praise God for all eternity.
[00:11:50] That takes us to our first reading, which is from Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2: 2-4.
“O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongs and look upon trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. And the LORD answered me: ‘Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
Habakkuk is one of the twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament, not minor because he is unimportant, but minor because his book is short.
[00:13:11] The name Habakkuk means he that embraces.
[00:13:15] But other than that, very little is actually known about Habakkuk. But the clues we do have suggest that he was a Levite, obviously a prophet, a Psalmist, and possibly a liturgical musician. This book can be dated to anywhere from the 7th to the 4th century BC and I realize that encompasses several centuries, but during that entire time, the Southern Kingdom of Judah was experiencing social upheaval where violence and lawlessness were becoming all too common. This book is unique in that Habakkuk doesn't preach a message of repentance to the people.
[00:14:08] Instead, we essentially hear a dialogue between God and the prophet followed by a hymn of praise. This is the only time we hear from Habakkuk in the 3-year Sunday Cycle of the Lectionary. So, let's listen to what he has to say…
“O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?”
The first part of this reading comes from chapter one, which is Habakkuk's part of the dialogue, where he presents his problems to God. And in these words, we hear the prophet's impatience and his anguish.
[00:14:50] “how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongs and look upon trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.”
[00:15:08] The prophet is explaining the situation in Judah to God. He is lamenting the violence, the wickedness, and the lawlessness that is flourishing in the kingdom of Judah.
[00:15:25] And I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating… God wants to hear from us, our most honest emotions, whether it's joy or anger or sorrow or hurt. He wants to hear what we honestly feel.
[00:15:46] Then the prophet Habakkuk asks God why he has to be the one to witness the events that he is witnessing and why God isn't doing something about it?
[00:16:02] We have asked that same question throughout history, because the world is full of sin… and we continue to ask God why?
“And the LORD answered me:”
With those words, we shift from Habakkuk's part of the dialogue (which we heard in chapter one) to God's response (which is recorded in chapter two). This is where we hear God's solution to the problems Habakkuk presented in chapter one. And what does God tell Habakkuk to do?
[00:16:40] “Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it.”
That sentence sounds strange and awkward, so let's break it down.
[00:16:53] “Write the vision.;”
[00:16:55] That means God's words must be preserved, so write them down.
[00:17:01] “make it plain upon tablets,”
Meaning the message should be clearly visible, legibly written, and publicly displayed. God is essentially saying to Habakkuk, make a giant sign that everyone can see.
[00:17:19] Those were called steles - they were giant pillars in biblical times.
[00:17:26] “so he may run who reads it.”
Again, that's awkwardly stated, but what it means is that God's message will be so clear and easy to read that even someone who is hurrying by will still be able to understand it.
[00:17:45] “For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie.”
[00:17:53] Essentially, God is saying to the prophet that God's solution to all of the problems enumerated in chapter one will unfold as he wills it to unfold, in his time, and according to his plan.
“If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.”
Meaning that everything will most assuredly occur, but in God's time, not ours.
[00:18:31] God created time and exists outside of it. We were created to function within time, we are subject to time - so, what may seem like a delay to us may not necessarily be perceived as a delay to God.
[00:18:53] “Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail,”
[00:19:00] God is saying that the wicked, the unjust, the proud - all who do evil, all whose souls are not upright - will fail.
[00:19:17] “but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
[00:19:21] When God says the righteous - he's talking about those who trust in God, who wait for God to fulfill his promises, who remain faithful to God's Covenant, they will survive God's judgment upon the kingdom of Judah, which, as it turns out, will be captivity in Babylon. The people will be taken into captivity in Babylon, and that righteous remnant will return to rebuild.
[00:19:57] Interestingly enough, Paul quotes this passage in both Romans 1 and Galatians 3 to explain that faith in the gospel - and remember, for Paul, gospel was the good news of Jesus - faith in that good news is how mankind is justified in Christ and made heirs to eternal life.
[00:20:20] That helps us make the connection between this reading from Habakkuk and our Gospel.
[00:20:28] Because if we are righteous, if we love and serve God in faith - and by extension love and serve others - then we are holding fast to our duty of being unworthy servants and doing what God commands here on earth.
[00:20:51] When we do that, we will live by faith in this world and be granted eternal life in the next.
[00:21:02] That brings us to our Responsorial Psalm, which is Psalm 95, and the refrain is:
“O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts.”
And here are the verses:
[00:21:16] “O come, let us sing to the LORD; Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!”
“O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”
“O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts, as at Mer’ibah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.”
[00:22:01] This Psalm is a Liturgical Hymn of Praise to God that serves as a call to worship and a reminder of obedience. In this Psalm, God is depicted in a number of different ways. He's depicted as the “Rock of Salvation.” He is depicted as our “Maker” and our “Shepherd.” And he's also depicted as a “mighty King” - now we don't hear that depiction in the particular verses that were selected for this weekend, but it occurs in that Psalm, nevertheless.
[00:22:40] And the community is invited to worship God with great joy, to praise him with song, and to show homage and reverence for him who made us and watches over us.
[00:22:57] Now, I don't always do this, but I am going to take the Psalm piece by piece this week.
“O come, let us sing to the LORD;”
Again, there's that invitation to the community to praise God.
[00:23:12] “let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!”
And there's that depiction of God as the “rock of our salvation.” God is both our stable foundation and the bulwark of our protection.
[00:23:28] “Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;”
[00:23:32] The community will come into God's presence wherever his presence may be, whether it was in the temple in Jerusalem before its destruction, or whether it is in any church anywhere across the world… we are to come into God's presence with thanksgiving.
[00:23:54] “let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!”
[00:24:04] And there's another depiction of God as our “Maker,” our Creator.
[00:24:09] Singing songs of praise, bowing, kneeling - those are all ways to pray to God and to worship him.
“For he is our God,”
[00:24:22] Just because he is… he is to be praised!
“and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”
[00:24:32] And there's that depiction of God as the divine “Shepherd” who will always care for us, the sheep of his flock.
[00:24:40] “O that today you would listen to his voice!”
[00:24:44] That is a reminder that each new day is an opportunity to listen to God (rather than to ourselves) so that we can in turn respond to him with faith and obedience.
[00:25:02] “Harden not your hearts,”
[00:25:05] That is a warning against stubborn disobedience, which is an attitude we can often adopt when we listen to the voices of the world rather than to God's voice.
[00:25:20] “as at Mer’ibah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.”
Massah and Meribah are the places where the Israelites tested God about having water to drink during the Exodus.
[00:25:41] And they HAD seen God's deeds… they had seen all the wonders that Moses had worked at God's direction and on God's behalf - including parting the Red Sea and being led by a pillar of cloud. They had seen all of that, and yet still they questioned. But the Psalmist is saying that God's providence is always before us - as it was before the Israelites in the desert - and all we have to do is look in order to see it.
This Psalm, too, connects back to our Gospel. It reminds us that we, who are unworthy servants, should listen to God's commands and hold fast to our duty by obeying those commands here on earth and serving God - and others - out of love.
[00:26:42] That takes us to our Second Reading, which is from 2 Timothy 1: 6-8, 13-14.
[00:26:53] “[Beloved:] I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control. Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but take your share of suffering for the gospel in the power of God. Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus; guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.”
[00:27:48] This is the first of four passages we will hear from 2 Timothy this summer, and this is one of Paul's Pastoral Letters along with Titus and 1 Timothy (which we finished up with last week). You may remember when I introduced 1 Timothy, I said that some questions arose in the 19th century as to whether or not Paul actually wrote those letters but, despite some lingering debate, most scholars do recognize Paul as the author of all of the Pastoral Epistles. It is difficult to pin down a precise date for 2 Timothy because questions still persist about some of the events of Paul's life.
[00:28:37] All Scripture scholars accept that Paul was imprisoned in Rome - held under house arrest - sometime around 60 to 62 A.D.
[00:28:48] Paul was released after that imprisonment. And while all scholars accept that, some scholars further contend that Paul wrote this particular letter during a second imprisonment in Rome prior to his execution by Nero in 67 AD.
I'm not a Pauline scholar, but to my mind there are enough differences between the description of Paul's house arrest in his Captivity Letters and the description of his experience of being in prison in this Second Letter to Timothy to suggest that Paul was in prison on two separate occasions and that Paul himself was the author of these letters.
[00:29:38] And Paul wrote this letter to Timothy for two reasons… first, to encourage Timothy in his ministry of serving the Church in Ephesus, but second, to summon Timothy to Rome… to come and join Paul in Rome.
[00:30:05] Paul was learning firsthand just how fierce Nero's persecution of Christians was becoming and many of those who had been Paul's helpers and companions during his first imprisonment deserted him during this time.
[00:30:24] Unfortunately, Paul now finds himself alone and on trial, his life hangs in the balance, and he wants Timothy - one of his most trusted companions - to be with him.
[00:30:42] So, let's listen to what Paul has to say….
“[Beloved:] I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you”
[00:30:53] Paul is referring to the grace of Timothy's own ministry.
“through the laying on of my hands;”
[00:31:02] Remember, Paul always saw the imposition of hands as the means by which ministerial gifts were conferred or passed on. And we hear in this sentence that Paul himself laid hands on Timothy to pass on the gift of leadership in the Church.
[00:31:26] “for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power”
[00:31:33] The spirit of power is how Paul talks about the supernatural strength of the Holy Spirit - and Paul says it is with us - with both Timothy and Paul, certainly, but with us as well.
[00:31:49] And not just a spirit of power, but one of…
“love and self-control.”
[00:31:57] Those are two charisms that every minister needs in abundance to serve the Church.
[00:32:05] And Paul isn't talking about just the ministerial priesthood… he's talking about anyone that serves the church. And everyone that serves the Church needs love and
self-control in abundance.
[00:32:21] And those are also gifts that Timothy would most certainly have needed in abundance to serve the Church in Ephesus. In fact, in Paul's mind, all gifts from the Holy Spirit are to be used to serve God and to build up his Church. We hear that from Paul time and time again.
[00:32:44] Saint John Chrysostom (an early Church Father, Archbishop, and Doctor of the Church), wrote the following: “Zeal is required to stir up the gift of God, for it lies within our power to kindle or quench his grace.”
[00:33:05] Meaning that the way we receive God's grace and what we do with it matters! Because we can either kindle or quench it. He also means that we cannot simply be bystanders and let other people do the work of ministry in the Church. We should kindle that grace… we should be active, willing servants… putting ourselves at the disposal of God and his Church and - by extension - God's people.
[00:33:42] “Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord,”
[00:33:47] Paul is telling Timothy that he should not be ashamed to witness to his faith in God by preaching and suffering for the sake of the good news of Jesus.
[00:34:00] He says the same thing to us!
[00:34:04] “nor of me his prisoner,”
Remember, Paul is now alone and in prison.
[00:34:11] His other companions have deserted him. So, he is trying to convince Timothy to come to Rome and saying that he - that Timothy - shouldn't be ashamed of anything Paul has done, nor should he be ashamed to serve openly as Paul's companion.
“but take your share of suffering for the gospel in the power of God.”
[00:34:39] Suffering was integral to Paul's understanding of himself and his service to God, as well as being a constant companion throughout his many Missionary Journeys.
[00:34:54] “Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me,”
[00:35:00] Paul is saying there that Timothy is Paul's successor and, as such, he is instructing him to continue the work Paul started and to preach the message that Paul preached.
“in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus;”
[00:35:23] With those words, Paul is assuring Timothy that Jesus will always provide the strength needed to persevere and succeed in ministry.
[00:35:37] Jesus will always give us faith and love, but our duty is then to pass those on to others.
[00:35:51] “guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.”
[00:36:01] The truth Paul refers to is the gospel.
[00:36:05] And remember, for Paul, gospel was not the written word of the four Evangelists! The gospel was the good news of Jesus… of his life, his Passion, Death, and Resurrection. And that good news is a sacred deposit of knowledge entrusted to Timothy. And in Paul's mind it is Timothy's highest priority to safeguard that truth, to preserve it from corruption of any sort, to defend it from any and every attack, and to pass it on intact to Timothy's eventual successor.
[00:36:55] Timothy will be strengthened to accomplish all of that by the grace of the Holy Spirit that has been poured into Timothy's heart and now dwells within him.
[00:37:11] That, of course, is a distinctly Pauline idea. We also hear that in Romans, Ephesians, and 1 Corinthians.
[00:37:21] The same grace - the same gifts - that Timothy received are given to us as well.
[00:37:32] It is up to us to accept those gifts, to kindle those gifts (using the words of Saint John Chrysostom).
[00:37:43] Those gifts of faith, love, truth, grace, strength, and allow them to grow within us, within our hearts, so that we can do what God commands us to do… the simple duty of unworthy servants - to love and serve God and others in faith.
[00:38:12] If you would like to reach out to me with questions or comments, send me an email at
[email protected]
Thank you for spending this time with me, and until next we meet, may God shower his blessings upon you like a soft and gentle rain, and may he hold you, safe and secure, in the palm of his hand.
From His Word to Our Hearts is produced by SFS Audio Solutions.
The content of the show was assembled by me, Sally Moriarty-Flask.
Our music was composed by Jimmy Flask and is used with the permission of the composer. All rights reserved.
Information regarding references used in preparing the exegesis for this podcast is available upon request.
Thank you for listening and God bless.
