Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him;
and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and
returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,' you should forgive
him."
And 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."
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Reflection:
The story is
told about a woman who wants her faith to increase, she practically did
everything to have it. She went to church regularly, read the bible and she did
a devotion to the blessed Mother. However, she noticed that her faith did not
increase.
She even shouted, “Increase my faith O Lord” but there
was no increase in her faith. In fact she noticed that her faith was actually
diminishing because she was more trusting on herself than the Good Lord.
Why? For the simple reason that she remained arrogant towards her
relatives and friends. She always wants to have her way in everything that she
does: in short there was no change in her egotistical behavior.
What must we do for us to have an increase in our
faith? We must be humble at all times, before God and others. We must trust God
more than we trust ourselves. We attract graces (including the grace of faith)
if we are humble and if we bow our heads before God.
When we’re humble and more trusting in God it simply
means that we’re opening ourselves for heavenly graces. That God pours to those
who are always ready to accept it with humility. What happens if we’re arrogant
and we trust more on ourselves? We’re shutting ourselves from God blessings,
that’s how plain and simple it is.
We cannot anymore fill a glass full of water, this is
the arrogant and self-trusting person who is always full of himself. But we can
certainly pour more water to a half-empty glass, this is the person who trusts
and humbles himself before God. – Marino J. Dasmarinas