A GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED

`While Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John, the other disciples were approached by a man whose son "was lunatic, and sore vexed"--but the disciples were in nowise able to cast out the demon.  At our Lord's rebuke, however, the demon "departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour."  Afterwards, when the disciples came to Jesus and asked why they could not cast out the demon, He replied, "Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you."  Now a mustard seed is indeed very tiny and seemingly of no significance, but I cannot help but wonder: do you and I, as 21st Century Christians, living in a secular, post-Christian society on the very brink of the Apocalypse have faith even in proportion to an amoeba? 

Compared to the first Christians, fervent in faith and empowered by the grace of the Holy Spirit to work miracles and to endure for the sake of Christ persecutions, sufferings, and martyrdom itself--it would seem that we are a miserable lot indeed.  It seems to me that we are, for the most part, Christians in name only, professing to believe--while hardly daring to venture beyond the limits of our comfort zone.  If our prayers are for the most part feeble and ineffective, it is because we have failed to acquire that living faith through which it is possible to overcome every obstacle upon the path of salvation.

Such a faith truly is, you see, a gift of God... but it is certainly not  a free gift.  It is only given to those who struggle for virtue and persevere unto the end upon the path of salvation.  Thus, our Lord assures his disciples that "this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."  True it is that it is by faith we are saved, and not by the works of the Law.  Nevertheless, it is an inconvertible truth that "faith without works is dead."  Christ Himself assures us that "straight and narrow is the path" that leads to true and eternal life in His heavenly Kingdom.  But let's face it: we contemporary Christians of the last and final generation are pampered and lazy, accustomed as we are  to think that life in this fallen world should be easy and essentially pain free.  The so-called "good life" is to acquire as many earthly goods as we can, and to strive to achieve a superficial happiness based upon the fulfillment of our own self-centered desires.

"For my yoke is easy and my burden is light," says our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  But this is a promise only given to those who have taken up their cross of sacrificial suffering and followed Him, enduring unto the end the trials and tribulations of this earthly life, putting to death every egotistical thought and desire, that we might say with the Holy Apostle, that it is no longer I who live... but Christ liveth in me.