FIRST READING
“The righteous shall live by his faith.”
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Habakkuk (Habakkuk 1: 12-2:4)
Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgement; and you, O Rock, have established them for chastisement. You who are of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on wrong, why do you look on faithless men, and be silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? For you make men like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a hook, he drags them out with his net, he gathers them in his seine; so he rejoices and exults. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and bums incense to his seine; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying his net, and mercilessly slaying nations for ever? I will take my stand to watch, and station myself on the tower, and look forth to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end — it will not lie. If it seem slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
The word of the Lord.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Psalm9:8-9.10-11. 12-13 (R. 11b)
R/. You will not forsake those who seek you, O Lord.
The LORD sits enthroned forever;
he has set up his throne for judgement.
He will judge the world with justice;
he will govern the peoples with equity. R.
For the oppressed, the LORD Will be a stronghold,
a stronghold in times of distress.
Those who know your name will trust you;
you will not forsake those who seek you, O Lord. R.
Sing psalms to the Lord who dwells in Sion.
Tell his mighty works among the peoples,
for the Avenger of Blood has remembered them,
has not forgotten the cry of the poor. R.
ALLELUIA 2 Timothy 1:l 0
Alleluia. Our Saviour Christ Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
If you have faith, nothing will be impossible to you.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Matthew 17:14-20)
At that time: A man came up to Jesus and kneeling before him said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, 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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Today’s Reflection
Sometimes, life presents us with experiences that are a great burden to our lives. Like the prophet Habakkuk, we question why evil persons thrive undisturbed and God is silent or he seems to delay judgment. Our inability to get satisfactory answers to our questions are caused by two basic problems. Sometimes, we question God and do not have time to wait for answers. At other times, we expect God to respond to our expectations. Today, we are being given the right attitude to all the burdens we bear. It is not enough to make your requests to God. We must keep waiting until God answers. A person of faith is one who trusts God enough to believe that God knows what he is doing.