“How long, O Lord? I cry for help, but you do not listen. I cry out violence. You do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin? Why must I look at misery? There is strife and clamorous discord.” This could well be a prayer, a lament we raise today. And yet, we see that it was raised 700 years before Christ, by the prophet Habakkuk. In the three year cycle of Sunday readings, today is the only time we hear from him. Interesting name—Habakkuk—I am still waiting to baptize an infant with the name of Habakkuk! He lived in a time of political and religious chaos and in the midst of it all, he struggled in faith, questioning why God would permit evil in the world. It is a modern day struggle to be sure! Like Habakkuk, we question, we wonder: “Does God care? Is God fair? Is God there?”
Why do we sometimes have such questions?
One reason may be that we do not see God’s answer to our prayer right away. Habakkuk was surely praying for quite some time, but he did not see any answer coming. And so, he cried out in desperation: “How long, O Lord?”
Have you ever prayed a “how long” prayer? How long O Lord, until I find a job? How long until I get better? How long until my marriage improves? How long until this burden is lifted from me? How long will this homily go on?
At other times it seems that God does not care is when we see the wicked triumphing over good, when we see injustice.
Still, throughout the Scriptures, God assures us that he does hear us in prayer, that he does care, and that he is benevolent. While we are busy crying out “How long?” and wondering if he is even listening, God is already in the process of answering our prayers.
We have to pray as did the apostles in today’s Gospel: “Increase our faith” so that we can understand that God’s ways are higher than our ways; his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, that God’s timetable is different than our own. His delays are not denials.
God may be working in us in a way that we cannot yet feel, experience, or understand. At times when God seems absent and has left us alone, let us cling even more strongly to him. Let us not run away, give up or stop praying even when it all seems useless and a waste time and effort. Let us love God even when we may not feel loved by him.
In our own Habakkuk moments, let’s make our prayer that of St. Ignatius of Loyola:
“Lord Jesus, help us to have perfect trust in your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten us or worry us, for, living close to you, we shall see your hand, your purpose, your will in all things. Amen.
