27th Sunday Year C - Homily 6

 

Homily 6-2022 

In today’s First Reading the prophet Habakkuk seems to have just about hit rock bottom. He was close to despair. He knew he was not the only one. As prophet, he but did not know how to react, what to say.

His situation was this: a bit like Ukraine facing up to the Russian bear clamouring on its border. The small kingdom of Judah was under pressure from the military giant, Assyria. Judah had allied with Egypt, but Egypt was not really interested in helping. What is more, their own Jewish leaders could not agree on what to do. Habakkuk cried out to God in desperation. God’s answer: “The upright man will live by his faithfulness”. God didn’t say that God would save Judah from the Assyrians. God left that open. All God guaranteed was that the upright ones would still somehow find space to breathe, to live, and perhaps even to flourish if they would only trust God

I feel like Habakkuk myself sometimes. After Covid, will we find our churches filling up again? Are we facing further decline? Will there be a return to the “good old days”, even finishing up stronger than before? Might God simply have been telling Habakkuk, and now telling us, something like, “Leave outcomes to me. The way to come alive is the uncomplicated way of faithfulness”.

The message of today’s Gospel can lend itself to a similar conclusion. “Increase our faith!” the apostles pleaded. Jesus seemed to back away from a direct response. Perhaps, Jesus cannot believe for us. Our faith is essentially up to ourselves, a necessarily free choice on our part. But Jesus did say, “If you do have faith, you could perhaps expect the most unlikely outcomes from your faith — uproot a mulberry tree and somehow transplant it in the sea.” However, that may not have been what they had quite expected!”

Luke then had Jesus tell a story reflecting very closely the cultural situation of slavery, and the strict “honour code” that guided his culture, both of which seem so different from our ways of interacting. There was a great social divide between slaves and their masters. Masters made their own decisions; masters took their own initiatives. That was not slaves’ business, not slaves’ duty; that was in no way expected of them. Masters didn’t deal with slaves as they did with their social equals.

What might have been the point of Jesus’ story in relation to the general question of faith raised by the apostles? I wonder if Jesus was saying something like, “Leave the big picture to God — that is God’s responsibility; leave outcomes to God — that is not your responsibility.” Our situation is something like that of the slaves, “We are merely servants; we [can do] no more than our duty”.

If so, what is our duty in our current Church, in our current world? I think it is precisely that we have faith, that we believe. But let us get faith clear. Faith in Jesus is not a question of accurate catechism answers, of being orthodox. It is about relating; it is about trusting Jesus, trusting his priorities, his way of living. The wonderful thing is that, while difficult enough, it is not complicated. Jesus had summed up his mission quite early on by proclaiming, “The kingdom of God is close at hand. It is good news. Let go of your ingrained attitudes and former ways of seeing things; believe the good news.” He followed that up almost immediately by connecting it inseparably with the invitation, “Follow me”. Believing is relating, relating personally to Jesus, getting familiar enough with him as to trust his values and his priorities; and wanting to observe them. Jesus cannot relate to himself; relationships are essentially two-way.

We do not need to know what the Church will be like twelve months from now, or five years, or ten years. That is up to God. What God is assuring us of now is what he told Habakkuk two and a half thousand years ago, “The upright will live by their faithfulness”. Regular contact with the heart of Jesus is enough to put the quiet smile on our face, a sparkle in our eye and a spring in our step. We need no more.

Stand by for surprises!