Homily
[2] 27th Sunday of Year C: Fr. Michael U. Udoekpo
·
Hab 1:2-3;2:2-4;
·
Ps 95:1-2,6-9;
·
2 Tim 1:6-8,13-14
·
Luke
17:5-10
The Righteous shall live
by faith (Habakkuk 2:4)
The
importance of faith, a supernatural gift from God, which enables us to believe
him and in the teachings of the Church, is central in today’s readings. How do
we remain faithful, trusting(emunah) in God’s plans, and believing in him, in the midst of hardship,
threats, terrorism, war, joblessness, lack of shelter, lack of food, frustration,
poverty, illnesses, temptations social injustices, prevalent in our
world today. For Habakkuk, the righteous,
people, like Abraham and his descendants, Noah, Joseph etc, no matter what, shall live by faith. We
are all Abraham's descendants, invited to share in this righteousness ,despite our personal stories. Yes, we do have our stories when we feel God is not listening to us, when we feel God is not acting fast to assist us in
our troubles, in our needs, in our lacks, in our oppressions, and in our deprivations!
Habakkuk of today’s 1st reading
must have felt this way. In the midst of sufferings, deprivations, threats of wars, the Babylonian
armies, hunger, deprivation of his people Habakkuk says to God, “O Lord I cry
for help, but you are not listening. Actually, God was listening. It will only
take faith, patience, and humility, righteousness to realize that God listens to
us in a divine, and in mysterious ways! As was the case with Joseph and Mary,
during her mysterious pregnancy, God spoke to Habakkuk in a vision, in a dream. In Habakkuk chapter 2 God proves
that he was listening to Habakkuk's cry, prayer, lamentation, and to the plight of his
people. The Babylonians will not reign forever. They will eventually be defeated!
In
the 2nd reading, Paul also realize that it was nothing else, but the
gift of faith from Christ Jesus that enabled him to move without shame from
being a persecutor to becoming a believer. It was the same faith, steadfastness for his love of the Gospel that sustained his confidence, trust, endurance, courage,
strength and self-control to proudly bear his sufferings and hardships,
including imprisonment throughout the duration of his missionary journeys! How many times was Paul not beaten, mocked, tried and imprisoned ? With faith, we
can bear our temporary sufferings, and carry our crosses, daily, to follow Christ!
And
this is what Christ expects of his disciples in today’s Gospels. When the
Apostles asks the Lord to increase their faith. Jesus says, yes, surely, if you
have faith, even as little as the size of the mustard seed, everything is
possible. With faith, you could say to that deep rooted mulberry tree be uprooted and be
planted in the sea, and it will obey you.
It
is all about faith, trusting in God in the face of dangers, in the face of
terrorism today, in the face uncertainties, poverty, inequalities in our
society; in the face of illnesses, and in the face of the loss of our loved
ones. Sometimes, it is easily said, that done. Let us like Christ’s disciples,
ask the Lord at this Mass, to “increase our faith,” and bless us with the steadfastness (emunah) of Habakkuk.
