October 2, 2016 — Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
HAB 1:2-3: 2: 2-4; PS 95: 1-2, 6-9; 2 TM 1: 6-8, 13-14; LK 17: 5-10
Our First Reading from the Old Testament Book of Habbakuk is once again from someone we consider to be a minor prophet. However, Habbakuk, like other divinely-inspired writers of the Bible, captures the essence of messages and prophecies that have universal applicability not only in his time, but to us today.
Habbakuk was writing more than 600 years before the birth of Christ that is more than 2,600 years before now. Yet he addresses a stewardship approach to life in ways that are significant to us today. Scholars generally agree that the overall theme of Habbakuk is trying to grow from a faith that might be termed perplexing and sometimes doubtful to a point where we place absolute trust in God.
In today’s reading, Habbakuk deals with the situation of when someone believes in God, but when they look at the world around them, it does not seem to match what God wants. Isn’t that true of today’s world as we are inundated with tragic and horrible news almost on a daily basis?
Trust in God is the key for us to be good stewards, and it is at the crux of the power of faith. In his Memoirs Pope Benedict XVI said, “The more I reflect on it, the more I understand that the nature of human life is that it is ever Holy Saturday, not Easter Sunday. We are still awaiting Easter; we are not standing in full light, but walking toward it full of trust.” That trust is the secret!
