Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 2, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
The deathless depths of God
The vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint.
Habakkuk and God had some tough times at the beginning. Habakkuk’s questions in chapter 1 remind me of Job’s questions and the psalmist’s complaints.
What are you DOING, God? I cry for help and you do not listen.
Here is what James Finley says he is doing:
God is a presence that protects us from no things, even as God unexplainably sustains us in all things. God does not prevent the tragic thing, the cruel thing, the unfair thing from happening. Rather, God is intimately hidden as a kind of profound, tender sweetness that flows and carries us along in the intimate depths of the tragic thing itself – and will continue to do so up to and through death, and beyond.
In The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe, Susan is surprised when their friend Mr. Beaver says that the famous Aslan is a lion. “Ooh, I thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe?” Mr. Beaver was surprised. “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
God’s reassurance for Habakkuk is, of course, for us all. “I am good. Be patient and trust me.”
The vision still has its time and will not disappoint. If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.
Both the author of Hebrews and Paul quote the next verse, so it’s well-known even among us New Testamenters:
The righteous shall live by faith.
There need never be any hurry in faith. Look beyond every dark horizon and expect God’s sweet presence always on the other side. Finley, a sweet voice himself, continues:
As we grow old we realize that love has been using us for its own purposes. And for this we feel immensely grateful.
In his poem “The Dark Night,” Saint John of the Cross talks about a windfall of delight. When fruit becomes very ripe, the slightest wind can cause it to fall to the ground. This is also true of us, especially at the end of our lives. The windfall of delight pertains to our last breath, which we know and trust will send us falling forever into the deathless depths of God.
Our Empty Nesters classmate Kathy Black passed away on September 14 after 65 months of cancer. Speakers at her memorial service reminded us of her constant faith. Matt Cassidy reminded us it was the Holy Spirit working from the inside out that drove her constant faith. And the same Holy Spirit led her to drink up all of life, even the sludge at the bottom of the glass. Kathy, Matt said, wrung everything out life.”
As he neared his own death, Francis of Assisi, who befriended everyone and everything, called death “a welcome sister.” I expect Kathy echoed his thoughts on September 14. God is good. All the time.
(Habakkuk 1, Psalm 95, 2 Timothy 1, 1 Peter 1, Luke 17)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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