My Orlando Vacation

Understanding the interplay of faith, works, and grace

10/05/2025

Luke 17:5-10 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. "Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here immediately and take your place at table'? Would he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished'? Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.'"

Last weekend I went to visit my sister, Mary, in Orlando for a little vacation. But instead of getting a selfie with Mickey Mouse or working on my tan sipping on a Pina Colada on Daytona Beach, Mary put me to work. First, she asked me to give a presentation to her OCIA class, then she wanted me to speak to her Marriage Mentor group, and finally she scheduled me to celebrate two Masses on Sunday. Let me tell you, an Orlando vacation is way overrated.

At the end of my presentation to the OCIA class, though, one participant raised her hand to ask: “So, why do Catholics say we are saved by works but Protestants put more weight on faith?” I answered: “I would say it’s not mainly about faith or works, but much more about grace. In other words, we are saved by grace." Then I shared this illustration with the OCIA class which I have shared with you before.

One day Scott Hahn was jogging around his neighborhood and noticed a man trying to move his front yard. But his small toddler son kept crossing in front of him with his toy mower, imitating his dad. The man was getting visibly frustrated, so Scott Hahn decided to make another loop around the block to see how the father would resolve his 4-year-old dilemma.

When Hahn came back by the same house, he noticed the father had picked up his son and was carrying him in one arm. With the other arm he was steering his mower. Meanwhile the little boy had both his hands on the real mower, and a huge smile on his face. I’ll give you one guess why he was smiling from ear to ear. The boy thought he was moving the yard with his dad’s mower. That image illustrates how we are saved by grace. How?

Well, you and I are the little boy being carried in God the Father’s arms and anything we think we do by our “works” is entirely sustained by his loving grace. We read a succinct summary of salvation in Deut 1:31, “The Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all along your way.” You see, faith opens our eyes to see how God’s grace saves us, from beginning to end. We might say our only contribution is to not jump out of the Father’s arms.

The gospel today juxtaposes, side by side, two apparently unrelated topics, but they are in fact, inseparably connected. In Luke 17:5-6 the apostles request: “Increase our faith.” Then in verses 7-10, Jesus speaks about the attitude of a useless servant, saying: “When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do’.”

What does increasing of faith (on the one hand) have to do with being unprofitable servants (on the other)? I believe the story of the father and son mowing the yard can help us here. First, as the faith of the apostles increases, they more they see reality as it is: how the Father’s love sustain all creation and every person by carrying everything in his arms.

Nothing (and no one) budges without his providence guiding it or his permission allowing it. Notice this spiritual fulcrum at work: the more faith we have, the less credit we feel we can take. John the Baptist said it best: “He must increase and I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). Faith sees how grace does it all. And we are but "unprofitable servants.”

Let me draw out three implications of this interplay between faith, works, and grace. First, faith is a gift from God. Thus, we cannot increase it by ourselves, for example, watching Youtube videos on faith, or listening to the Bible in a Year, or reading thousands theology books. All these things are good, but they do not change the fact that God gives the gift of faith as he pleases.

All we can do is pray for faith and open our hands to receive. We are like those people standing on the street corner with signs asking for assistance. They need financial help because they are materially poor. We need faith help because we are spiritually poor. We are all beggars before God when it comes to faith.

Second, we can understand sin more accurately in light of faith, works, and grace. How so? Well, if faith helps us to see that anything good we do is simply cooperating with God’s grace – sitting put in God’s arms – then sin is simply not cooperating with God’s grace. Put differently, sin is jumping out of the Father’s arms and foolishly trying to mow the yard with our toy mower. In a word, every sin is silly, unnecessary and slows down God’s work of salvation.

And third, faith, works, and grace teach us the meaning of humility. When we grasp we are all just the little boy carried in the Father’s strong arms, what can we possibly boast or brag about? Our higher education degrees are God’s work. Our brilliant inventions and bright insights are his work. The money we earn, the milestones we reach, the families we raise, the churches we pastor, the businesses we build – everything we lift a finger to do – is always his work first and foremost.

If we take any satisfaction or pride, or gloat in anything we achieve or how hard we work, we are imitating that little boy who smiled from ear to ear thinking he was mowing the yard. Instead, we should humbly conclude: “We are unprofitable servants.” And perhaps that’s a better way to think about what I did last weekend: as a little boy carried in his father’s arms. So maybe last weekend really was a pretty good Orlando vacation, where fathers carry their children in their arms through the Magic Kingdom.

Praised be Jesus Christ!