“THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL LIVE BY HIS FAITH” (Hab 2:4)

⏰Saturday of the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (11 August 2018 – Memorial of St. Clare)

📖Hab 1:12 – 2:4; Ps 9:8-9, 10-11, 12-13 (R.v.11b); Matt 17:14-20

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, faith is a supernatural gift of God, which enables us to believe without doubt, all that God has revealed. In the Gospel, Jesus tells us, “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you” (Matt 17:20). Faith acknowledges the omnipotence of God?

Why do we suffer in the world when God is omnipotent and we are his children? Why are we not able to achieve out goal even with constant efforts? Jesus says, it is lack of faith (cf. Matt 17:17).

At a time that Judah faced serious threat and oppression in the hands of the Babylonians, the prophet Habakkuk cries out to God (Hab 1:12-17), the same way the apostles cried out to Jesus (Matt 17:19). The answers to both cries centre on faith.

However, two more criteria could be deduced from the answers: prayer and righteousness. Prayer is a dialogue between God and man; and the catechism teaches that it is the raising up of our mind and heart to God. Nobody can be in such dialogue without being righteous. Maybe that is why God answers Habakkuk, “The righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab 2:4).

St Clare, whose Memorial we celebrate today was an epitome of that righteousness. Through the practice of detachment, self-emptying and trust in God, she was able to give herself wholly to God.

She was born of a noble family in Assisi but she abandoned the affluence of his father’s house and followed the simplicity of the way of St. Francis of Assisi, thus becoming the first female member of his group, and with whom the foundation of the female body of the followers of St. Francis would be formed.

The psalmist reminds us that the Lord does not forsake those who seek him (Ps 9:11). In our daily battle with difficulties and oppression from the hands of the evil one, our help shall come from the Lord our God, who made heaven and earth (Ps 121:2).

He is God who never fails to heed the prayers of his children. Try him today.

Have a blessed and joyous weekend. Peace be with you.