Reading and meditation on the Word of God on Saturday of the 18th week in ordinary time, August 8, 2026, Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest

Delivered by Gabriella Natani from the Parish of Good Shepherd in the Diocese of Surabaya, Indonesia. Habakkuk 1: 12 - 2: 4; Rs psalm 9: 8-9.10-11.12-13; Matthew 17: 14-20.FAITH IS AS BIG AS MUSTARD SEED Our meditation today has the theme: Faith as Big asMustard Seed. There was the fact that after all the times in following theMaster, Jesus Christ, it was evident that the apostles could not solve aproblem they were facing. They were not able to heal people who were sick andpossessed by the evil spirits. They could not command the evil spirits out fromthe people who wanted to have a normal life. They were so aware that somethingwent wrong with their faith, but they did not know exactly what was the defect. Jesus Christ made them realized of what lacking wereactually the strength, the quality and the core of their faith which was stillweak, even though they were with Him day and night. Faith is like a mustardseed, which is small but powerful, has good quality, strong and has allpossibility to grow big. With such great potential, a faithful person will beable to do what is impossible. With that power of faith, a mountain can also beordered to move to another place. To be more concrete, what we mean by faith as big as amustard seed? The most essential aspect is that in the life of a believer, Godis the Subject who speaks and does. This suits with what Saint Paul says abouthis faithfulness to the Lord, that it is not he who lives in himself, but JesusChrist who lives in him. Supposedly, you are asked by a friend to help relievehim from the pain he suffers at a moment. You believe that God will doeverything. And so you pray and offer all your attention to help him, but Godis still number one to be given the space or opportunity to do His part. If people only rely on the human abilities to solveproblems or difficulties, they will become lazy, bored, angry and eventuallygive up. It has always happened that way. The reason of this maybe because Godwas not given the space and opportunity to do what should be His part. In theend we will complain like the apostles did, when they indeed realized that theywere not able to solve the problems on their own? Perhaps from His silencemoment and place the Lord was about to remind them and us as well, as He says,"Your faith is not strong. You do not involve Me." The other aspect that indicates faith as big as amustard seed is awareness, availability and love to maintain the faith that isgrowing within us. As small as the mustard seed, our human tendency is tounderestimate, to oversee or even to neglect in caring for it and developingit. It's natural for us to give attention to big and attractive things. Thistendency must be avoided. Saint Dominic, in pursuing his vocation, had done hisworks tirelessly and with good will to make the Word of God planted firmly inthe life of people. What he did was the same as the prophet Habakkuk who saidin the first reading, that faith is the only reason for us to live inrighteousness. Only then can our faith endure to the end. Let'spray. In the name of the Father ... O Lord Jesus Christ, Your Mother and alsoour Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary is an example for our faith to become veryuseful like the mustard seed. Guide us to always to imitate the faith ofBlessed Mother. Hail Mary ... In the name of the Father ...