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With evil strident and swamping the just, the believer
is confident that God hears prayers confronts Him with
nagging questions (Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4). One indeed
needs faith to be able to do one’s work with dedication
and strive to even greater service by being accustomed
to the impossible and the extraordinary (Luke 17:5-10).
I cry
and you do not listen!
The
prophet Habakkuk’s complaint stemmed from the religious
and political circumstances of the late 7 B.C.E. as
Assyria toyed with God’s chosen people.
Internally, the people had gone back on earlier reforms
and were wallowing again in corruption. In his anger,
Habakkuk looked even on the Babylonians as God’s
instrument to chastise them of their wickedness and to
end the vicious cycle of violence, destruction and
misery. But in an audacious cry to God he asked, “How
long, O Lord? . . . Why do you let me see ruin? Why must
I look at misery?”
Such cry
of distress appears often enough in the psalms: “Awake!
Why are you asleep, O Lord? Arise! Cast us not off
forever!” (Psalm 44:24).
Especially Psalm 22:2 repeated by Jesus on the cross:
“My God, my God, why have You abandoned me? Why so far
from my call for help, from my cries of anguish?”
But
these cries of torments do not reflect lost trust in
God. They are the setting for more and continued calls
for assistance, convinced of eventual victory: “My
strength, come quickly to help me. . . . Then I will
proclaim your name in the assembly . . . . For God has
not spurned or disdained the misery of this poor wretch
. . . but heard me when I cried out.” (Psalm
22:20.23.25)
The just
man shall live
Habakkuk
himself thought, “I will keep my watch to see what He
will say to me, and what answer He will give to my
complaint.” (2:1)
And sure
enough, God responded with a declaration of fidelity to
His covenant with the people as confirmed in writing on
tablets of stone. God’s living word endures forever and
its message is for peoples of every age, pertinent for
Habakkuk’s day and for us today as well. God wants His
message to be so engraved as to be readable like a
billboard even to passersby.
The Word
of God accomplishes what it says (Isaiah 55:10-11). “The
vision presses on to fulfillment, and will not
disappoint.” It will surely come about; one need not
doubt or be impatient. “The vision still has its time.”
Wait for
it in unwavering hope, preparing oneself to receive it
in faithfulness. Indeed, “the just man, because of his
faith, shall live.” We must base ourselves on God’s
faithfulness, not on unstable pride or treacherous
wealth.
Psalm 37
(7.10-11) captures it well, “Leave it to the Lord, and
wait for Him; be not vexed at the successful path of the
man who does malicious deeds. . . . Wait and the wicked
will be no more; . . . but the poor will possess the
land, will delight in abounding peace.”
Increase
our faith
The
requirements of discipleship prompted Jesus’s followers
to ask Him to increase their faith. The moral demands of
avoiding altogether, giving scandal to others and of
continually forgiving others, for instance, are so
stringent as to seem impossible.
But
Jesus affirmed that with even the tiniest of faith like
a mustard seed, the impossible can be rendered possible,
like uprooting a sycamore tree with its extensive root
system and ordering it to be replanted in the deep sea.
The
unlikelihood of the images underlines the truth that
with God’s help only can the disciple carry out his
duties.
The
issue is deepened by the example of the servant in the
parable performing double duty, working all day in the
fields and afterward doing domestic work in the house.
The servant was doing no more than what was expected of
him, and so he was not waiting for any special reward or
gratitude.
Alálaong
bagá,
true Christians are doing no more than their duty when
they take care not to give scandal to anyone or when
they readily forgive others on every occasion. Even as
the followers of Jesus go about their tasks generously
and with total commitment, the realization is there that
no amount of service could merit the gift of salvation
that God gives.
There is
no cause for boasting; on the contrary, we recognize
that we are a “useless servant,” meaning it is not due
us to be thanked or rewarded. No favor is owed us by
God.
In our
faith, we know that it is only God’s graciousness that
maintains us in what is good and restores us to what is
good. But faith is not magic; it is our response to
God’s initiative of love and goodness. Faith is trusting
cooperation with God’s action, our patient waiting for
God to carry out His divine plan even amid flourishing
evil. Faith is many times praying to God: “Bahala Ka
na po!”
For more of my reflections and works, visit my blogsite:
http://alalaongbaga.multiply.com. |
