Homily- Saturday of the 18th
Week in Ord. Time, Year B./Memorial of St. Dominic
v Habakkuk 1:12-2:4
v Ps 9:8-9,
10-11,12-13
v Matt 17:14-20
The Righteous/Just Person Shall Live by
Faith
Today we celebrate the memorial of St.
Dominic. Born in Calaruega in Spain (1170-1221), we are told Dominic worked
tirelessly to challenge remove certain heresy like, the Albigensian—that human
beings were spirit trapped in the material body, a sort of anti-material and
physical things! Dominic was a great teacher and preacher of the faith in
Christ, and founded the Order of preachers.
The true faith in God, that Dominic
preaches is reflected in the readings of today from Habakkuk, a late
pre-exilic prophets to the Gospel of Matthew 17:14-20, we have just heard and
read.
In the case of the prophet Habakkuk, he
could not understand—the mystery of good and evil (theodicy), and why a “Holy
God” of Israel would “keep silent” over the enemies- the Chaldean/ Babylonians’
triumph over the faithful and the chosen people, Israel. He brought this in
form of a complaint by standing a sentinel before God. For Habakkuk the
righteous seems to be suffering while the wicked were from his own human point
view were ‘prospering.”
Through a series of complaint God once
again answered Habakkuk with a familiar answer that “the righteous, the saddiq/the
just man, because of his faith, shall live,” (Hab 2:4). In the case of Habakkuk’s text, faith, is
translated, as emunah, steadfast love, kindness, patient, and endurance,
the grace of forgiveness and total commitment and surrender to the will of God etc). Of course, Habakkuk in the last
chapter, or pericope of his book,
and after he might seen again the wonders of the Lord in the preceding verses,
will come to faith. Like Thomas the
Dydimus, in John’s Gospel, Habakkuk will say “my Lord and my God.”
So, I call Habakkuk 2:4 a familiar text
because in many places, especially Romans 1:16-17 Saint stresses and commented
on this text. Preaching to Romans, if may digress a little, Paul stresses what
is important in our relationship with God. He says “for I am not ashamed of the
gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the
Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed
through faith for faith; as it is written (quoting Habakkuk 2:4) “he who
through faith is righteous shall live” that is to say “the righteous shall live
by faith.”
We really see that faith in the man who
came to Jesus in today’s Gospel (Matt 17:14-20) pleading for God’s healing
mercy upon his lunatic son, who was suffering severely. According to the man, “often
he falls into fire, and often into water.” He came to Jesus because the
disciples of Jesus because of “faithlessness” could not heal the man’ son. For
Jesus, if we have faith “the size of a mustard seed,” [we] would say to the
mountain, ‘move from here to there, and it will move, for with God everything
is possible.
Let us, through the intercession of St. Dominic return to God, with faith, emunah,
hope, endurance, perseverance, love and patient, like the man, the father of the sick boy
in the Gospel or Habakkuk, presenting our needs and petitions to the Lord- for with him
everything is possible, and the righteous shall live by faith( Hab 2:4).
Reflection Questions
1.
How often do we bring our
daily challenges to God in faith and emunah?
2.
Abraham, Noah, Joseph the
just, Enoch etc were all righteous in a way. Are we righteous/saddiq/dikaiosune?
3.
In what way do we try to
help those wrestling with the mystery of suffering and seeming absence of God
in their pains and struggles- letting them know, God is there in their midst?
