faith and pride

Sunday | 27 | OT | C
Vancouver, October 6, 2019

What is a prophet? Prophets are sent by God and have the duty to look at first what is happening in the lives of the people, if they are faithful to God, and then, to discern God’s voice. The prophet warns of punishment, but he also gives hope. Warning is related to the need to make changes in sinful habits of the people. And God’s people need to be reminded because they are forgetful. Interior conversion is for all the faithful throughout one’s entire life. We are forgetful because we can easily be side-tracked, fall into sin and sinful habits. 

What is happening in our first reading? The prophet Habakkuk is writing sometime between the early-7th century and early 6th century BC the time of the Assyrian conquest in the north, and the rise of the Babylonians in the south who are referred to in Habakkuk as the Chaldeans. Israel and the people of God seem to be falling a part. The prophet Habakkuk speaks out!

Adults are no different than children in needing to be reminded. I had to remind a student -- the other day to be on time for class. I asked him why he was late: was it work? No. Was it a long walk across campus? No. Was it his bus connection? No. He simply did not see the importance of being on time -- he did not understand the value of punctuality. And asked me, with honest and sincerity, “Is it important to be at class on time?” Of course, I said.

Now I mention this because it demonstrates that even adults need to be reminded -- not just children -- of virtue. Things that we were taught, we forget, and so they are repeated by teachers, or parents or priests.

We all need to make changes if we want to grow in holiness. We cannot say, our life is perfect, or we are perfect, and we are pleasing to God. We please God, by turning to Christ and the Sacraments -- with increased fervour. But what is worse than not making changes, is not even recognising there are changes that need to be made.

And this is the role of the prophet: Who asks, look at your life, does it please God? Are your choices making you, god-like? In other words, holy. Be holy as your heavenly Father is holy. But Habakkuk also presents us with the challenge to our faith, when it seems that we are not heard, “O Lord, for how long shall I cry out for help, and you will not listen?” How does God correct the people, so they change their ways? In the Old Testament, it is essentially by teaching and by punishment.

Notice the last line of Habakkuk in our first reading: the righteous person lives by their faith. Habakkuk addresses God on behalf of the people. Habakkuk does not understand how even though the people may be sinful, God allows them to be punished by pagans – their enemies?

It seems strange. You believe in God but because you are sinning and you refuse to change your sinful ways, God sends your enemy to punish you.

This is what Habakkuk is reacting to: God, how can you do this? “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” Habakkuk contrasts the faith of the righteous to the proud person. Faith means not only to believe in God, but also to trust in God.

Faith and Pride. The two are opposed to each other. Faith says I will listen to God, obey His commands, walk with Christ, striving for a life of holiness which is possible by God’s grace, trust is knowing that God loves me, He sent His Son to save me, and wants me to be saved so that I can have eternal life with Him. We were created to be with God.

More and more Israelites in the north were abandoning their God for pagan gods. And so, they were being punished to the point of the people in the south, in Judah, were also subjected to the sins of the north. Sins spread, like poison through the body that kills… And God’s response is to put an end to this venom which is infidelity to God’s Commands.
Pride is opposed to all these things. Pride is about me. About me knowing best. About me putting myself above God. Putting my truth above revealed Truth. Putting my definition of love, above the love that Jesus Christ teaches us which is self-giving love. Pride is the perversion of the image of God. We are created God’s image and our sins pervert this image.

In the second reading, the 2nd Letter of Paul to Timothy, notice what Paul tells Timothy, and us: God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love and of self-discipline. Power is related to love and self-discipline because the power of which St. Paul speaks is the power given to us by the Holy Spirit. Laying on of hands, sacramentally through Ordination to the Priesthood which gives the Priest the power to consecrate the bread and wine, and to absolve sins, and anoint the sick and dying.

But the laying of hands in a healing ministry, a non-sacramental sense, so the person experiences, the power of the Holy Spirit, cleansing, strengthening, healing… Power is not to be understood as human power, the power associated with dominance and pride, but the power to resist the devil, the power to overcome the devil, the power to exercise courage, the opposite of cowardice. Courage is a key virtue associated with power because it means we are not afraid to speak, proclaim and defend the truth. This is what power truly means: to be a person of courage, to resist temptation, to overcome, to defend truth… I always say that Catholicism is not for wimps. 

Catholicism is for people with courage, and guts. Catholicism is the most gutsy form of Christianity because Catholicism is bold with the truth, and Catholic teaching as laid out in the Catholic Catechism refuses to submit to errors – even the most popular, widespread, social approved errors.

It’s easy to follow trends. To speak before an audience and get an applause as the movie and music celebrities so often get: because they say what people want to hear. Jesus Christ spoke the truth, and He was crucified for it. He did not get an applause. That’s what it means to be a Catholic. Truth is not about an applause.

“Increase our faith,” the Apostles ask Jesus Christ in St. Luke’s Gospel. 

This is a wonderful request and desire, a very holy one. Imagine, you are asked to wish for whatever you want, and you reply, “increase my faith.” You believe you already have faith but faith can always be increased. Increasing faith means loving God more, loving others more. 

The Saint especially known for her faith and love is St. Therese of Lisieux whom we celebrated last Monday. She is the Doctor of Divine Love. She was willing to give up her entire family and her comfortable home to live in a very cold Carmelite cloister. And even as she died, very young, she repeated, “Jesus I love you.” And what truly mattered to St. Therese in her short life was to love Jesus. This is a testimony of faith.

But why does Jesus respond to the Apostles the way he does? “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”? Not because the Apostles are lacking in faith, but the desire for increased faith is motivated from the wrong reasons. Jesus reminds them they are “worthless slaves” and to have faith is to grow in humility, the very opposite of pride. 

Jesus puts them in their place, “no matter how great your faith, true faith leads to humility, the virtue that reverses the sin of pride.” To repeat what Jesus taught is difficult, “we are worthless slaves.” This keeps us humble. Our duties reflect our Christian responsibility. Faith – leads to humility.
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In this month of the Holy Rosary which we celebrate tomorrow, let us turn to Mary, that we can grow in courage, humility and faith. Amen.