I've Been Waiting Sooooo Long

Deacon Tom writes on….

“I’ve Been Waiting Soooo Long”

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Today’s readings remind us that we are not patient people. When things are going badly, we cry out to God for help, and it never seems to come soon enough. The Prophet Habakkuk cries out for God’s help to end the violence and destruction that are plaguing the people of Judah. But God “does not intervene”.

Being faithful to God when we are experiencing sickness or despair, when we have lost someone we love, or when we are fearful of what the future holds is very difficult. Our hearts and minds struggle to feel God's presence. What we really want though, is to have our fears calmed, our financial problems resolved, our relationships mended, our illnesses cured, and for our loved ones to remain with us forever.

Difficult, perhaps, even as impossible as it seems, it is in these most painful times we are called to wait on God and to know that we have a share in that vision he told Habakkuk to write down.  What is that vision that Habakkuk wrote down on the tablets? WOW! The text doesn’t say! All it says is that the vision….. “still has its  time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint.”

Habakkuk’s vision and prophecy came to completion in the person of Jesus Christ. He entered our human drama in answer to the Prophet’s cry, “How long, O Lord?” God not only hears our cries but he even shares in our suffering and pain. It is during these very moments of intense suffering, when we are utterly helpless, that we begin to understand the very vision Habakkuk referred to, the vision that will not disappoint that God has in store for us, eternal life, where our tears will be tears of gladness and all that God has in store for us surely will not disappoint.  

To make this vision of Habakkuk’s ours we, like the Apostles, need to pray for an increase in faith so that the miniscule seeds of faith rooted deep within may sprout and blossom and enable us to realize the life that is ours to come, the reward of eternal life promised even to us unprofitable servants if only we have done all that we have been commanded.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom