by Fr. Tommy Lane
The prophet Habakkuk in our first reading was questioning God because of what he was seeing:
How long, O Lord? I
cry for help
but you do not listen!
I cry out to you,
“Violence!”
but you do not intervene.
Why do you let me see
ruin;
why must I look at misery? (Hab 1:2-3)
Whatever was going on in Israel at that time was obviously not good and Habakkuk was asking God why he was allowing this to happen. Habakkuk did the right thing: he went to God with his problem and had a conversation with God about it. I say he did the right thing because not everyone does. When bad things happen, some blame God and as a result turn away from God because we humans are very strange sometimes. We find it very difficult to separate pain and suffering and bad things that happen to us from God in the sense that we sometimes blame God. But God did not do whatever Habakkuk was seeing and if ever there is a temptation to turn from God as a result of pain and suffering and the cross, the very opposite, turning ever more to God, is what will help. When the apostles were in the boat and there was a storm (Matt 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-25), they went to Jesus in the boat and asked for his help during the storm. That incident is an example for us. When the storm hits, go to Jesus and Mary all the more. They are the ones who can help us through a storm. So, pray to Jesus and Mary every day. Make Jesus and Mary a special part of every day. Let Jesus and Mary be your closest companions all the days of your life. When someone has a particularly difficult suffering, they may in a moment of desperation wonder if God loves them. But Jesus and Mary love you more than you can ever imagine. Receive their love for you in prayer every day.
Habakkuk received an answer from God at the end of our first reading today: “the just one, because of his faith, shall live.” (Hab 2:4) It is not just faith because the devil also has faith; the devil also believes in God. Living faithfully despite our crosses will win the day. Faithful living brings a reward from God. We may have to wait a long time, some wait heroically until the next life, but remaining with God is the only option that will bring a good outcome.
Living in a time of war, as we do now, causes all sorts of questions to arise about God and suffering and evil. I think the suffering caused by war is the worst. For a long time, I have postponed visiting a World War II concentration camp because of the suffering endured there, but finally, recently I visited the one at Dachau just outside Munich because that is the one where most of the priests in concentration camps during World War II were sent. There were 2,579 Catholic priests, monks, and seminarians imprisoned there, including some bishops, and 1,034 were murdered there. A small number were freed or transferred but most remained imprisoned until liberated by Allies at the end of the war. Their suffering was horrendous. Of the 30 barracks in Dachau, barracks 30 and 28 were always occupied by priests and sometimes also 26. Three things helped the priests: prayer, abandonment to God, and offering their suffering for others (G. Zeller, The Priest Barracks: Dachau p236). They celebrated Mass and prayed the breviary as much as possible (Priest Barracks p220-221, 237) A Polish priest asked just before his death that his parishioners be informed that he offered his life for them (Priest Barracks p238)
Suffering, if we bear it well can produce surprising fruit in our lives. “Three years of experiences that I would not have missed for anything in the world” is how one priest survivor later summed up Dachau and many priest survivors made similar statements (Priest Barracks p217). Another priest survivor said, “Since Dachau, I strongly, even violently believe in the grace and love of God. Obviously, this faith presupposes belief in eternal life, but there is no other satisfactory solution to the problem of evil and suffering” (Priest Barracks 239-240). A journalist who interviewed survivors is said to have reported: “In the midst of the hell that was life in Dachau, so brutal, demeaning and deprived of humanity, who kept his own humanity and a sound mind the longest? Which persons, forgetting their own misery and their own humiliations, served the other men who were suffering in that diabolical system? . . . There was only one answer, always the same: ‘The Catholic priests.’” (Priest Barracks p235).
Whatever was going on in Israel at the time of Habakkuk in our first reading was obviously not good and Habakkuk was asking God why he was allowing this to happen. Habakkuk did the right thing: he went to God with his problem and had a conversation with God about it. When bad things happen, some blame God and as a result turn away from God because we humans are very strange sometimes. We find it very difficult to separate pain and suffering and bad things that happen to us from God in the sense that we sometimes blame God. But God did not do whatever Habakkuk was seeing and if ever there is a temptation to turn from God as a result of pain and suffering and the cross, the very opposite, turning ever more to God, is what will help. It was prayer, abandonment to God, and offering their suffering for others that helped the priests through Dachau.
When the storm hits, go to Jesus and Mary all the more. They are the ones who can help us through a storm. So, pray to Jesus and Mary every day. Make Jesus and Mary a special part of every day. When someone has a particularly difficult suffering, they may in a moment of desperation wonder if God loves them. Jesus and Mary love you more than you can ever imagine. Let Jesus and Mary be your closest companions all the days of your life. Receive their love for you in prayer every day.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2022
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
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