No Room for Holier-than-thou Attitude: Faith makes us like unto God, Patient and Understanding
Habakuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4; 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14; Luke 17:5-10
I have heard it said before, and I have read it written, that “prayer changes everything, even God himself!” My question is, what does prayer change God into? Moments when we want God changed, and prayers magical, are vividly described in the first reading of today: moments when our prayers are not answered, violence go unpunished, the proud and arrogant get away with dastardly atrocities, and the poor and righteous are trampled upon and dragged in the mud of shame with impunity! In times like that, we consider God dead, deaf and blind because it beats the imagination hollow that the God of justice doesn’t intervene to defend the just, innocent and poor persons for whom there is no help! But who is to blame, God or ourselves? Has the prophet, indeed, Israel, the right to ask for the punishment of others because they are holier than others or what?
The cry of the prophet Habakuk and the apparent silence of God teach us something about God – there is no room for holier-than-thou attitude when it comes to God and what God sees as justice or injustice! Writing on the eve of their bondage and servitude in Babylon, the cry of the prophet forgets the manacles of Israel over other nations, their betrayal of God’s love and fidelity to them was glossed over, the injustices of God and human beings were their question points – how come God doesn’t punish the evil person, evil person by our standards and punishment to be meted out to make us happy. This simply shows that the infidelity of the other appears clearer, sounds louder and hurts deeper than we perceive ours to be; we imagine the other deserving of punishments and condemnation, but mercy and forgiveness is all we want from God for ourselves. But what is the solution to all these?
“Habakuk” is a meaningful name that helps us to understand the lesson of our first reading. The only clear reconstruction of the meaning of the name of the prophet Habakuk is “to embrace”. What shall we embrace? We need to embrace our situations in life with the power of faith! According to Habakuk, “by faith, the righteous will live”. The truth that we, human beings, must admit is that life is not perfect. Yes, we may call upon Original Sin to explain our predicaments, but faced with and touched by situations of injustices, Original Sin does not help much, “faith” definitely does because it transports us beyond human logic to the heart and mind of God. We weather the storms of injustices and human inhumanity to other humans by becoming gods – it is the power of faith that helps us to be patient and understanding because God himself suffers with us.
It was a personal experience I had alongside two of my deacon classmates. After our diaconate ordination, a secondary school classmate of ours, a lay person, took us to a restaurant for a meal. The first course was cow-tail pepper-soup. After the first few bits, one of us protested – “why is there pepper in this soup?” And he was asked by another, “what are you eating?, to which he responded, “pepper-soup”; he was told, then keep you mouth shut and eat – pepper-soup has pepper, that’s why it is called pepper-soup! I guess we often suffer from amnesia which accounts for why we think that we live in a perfect world with perfect people. A Christian must be conscious of the fact that only in Heaven is such a world promised, not on earth. As the name Habakuk suggests, we are to embrace the reality of imperfection in this world through the power of faith. Through faith, Habakkuk’s admonition makes sense: “For still the vision awaits its appointed 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” (Habakuk 2:3). In other words, patience and understanding weather every evil and wickedness.
Jesus’ advice to us, when pride and the desire to be important threaten us, comes in handy: “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’” Such a piece of advice from Jesus teaches us the humility which living on earth requires. Indeed, the life of a Christian is to accept from the hands of God, what God decides for him/her. It is true that we should do our best to transform the earth into a better place for everyone – “your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” – but that is only possible when we factor in “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”.
The rottenness of or evil in the world is not just the actions of one individual person, but each one of us contributes to it – evil; our cry to God and complaints often forget this reality. When we work as “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do’” the chances of saving ourselves and the world are larger than our complaints about one another and God himself. “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,” speaks to our failure to realize the power within us. We have within us, our little faith or mustard-seed-faith that is capable of transforming our world beginning with our attitudes towards sinners, evil and wickedness.
If we must grow to maturity in our Christian life, then we need to heed Paul’s advice to Timothy, which also applies to us today: “I remind you, to stir into flame the gift of God that you have . . . For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control”. God’s gifts of self-control, power and love need to be stirred into flame in order to be accommodating of ourselves and others, especially when it comes to the subject of sin and injustices – we are not better than others, whether prophet, priest or president!
The lesson from our readings is how to withstand the evil person, personal failures and tragedies in life. The meaning of evil, failures and tragedies change and become positive, when we have faith and see all through the eyes of faith. Not faith as miracle, but faith as “understanding” that God’s hands are directing the course of history and our lives; faith that evil will never have the last word; faith that we are not stupid and naive because we do not meet violence with violence, injustice with injustice; faith that makes us like God – forgiving and patient up until God speaks to intervene. The clearest evidence of the “spirit of cowardice” is revenge and exacerbation of evil. The proof of faith is forgiveness, patience and love.
Assignment for the Week:
Pray for someone’s conversion this week or return a blessing for a curse or anger this week.