This blog follows the daily bible readings of the Catholic Church

Reading 1, Habakkuk 1:12—2:4

The vision is for the appointed time

12 Surely you, Lord, are from ancient times, my holy God, who never dies! Lord, you have appointed him to execute judgement; O Rock, you have set him firm to punish.

13 Your eyes are too pure to rest on evil, you cannot look on at oppression. Why do you look on at those who play the traitor, why say nothing while the wicked swallows someone more upright than himself?

14 Why treat people like fish of the sea, like gliding creatures who have no leader?

15 They haul them all up on their hook, they catch them in their net, they sweep them up in their dragnet and then make merry and rejoice.

16 And so they offer a sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their dragnet, for by these they get a rich living and live off the fat of the land.

17 Are they to go on emptying their net unceasingly, slaughtering the nations without pity?

1 I shall stand at my post, I shall station myself on my watch-tower, watching to see what he will say to me, what answer he will make to my complaints.

2 Then the Lord answered me and said, ‘Write the vision down, inscribe it on tablets to be easily read.

3 For the vision is for its appointed time, it hastens towards its end and it will not lie; although it may take some time, wait for it, for come it certainly will before too long.

4 ‘You see, anyone whose heart is not upright will succumb, but the upright will live through faithfulness.’

Scholars reckon that the prophet Habakkuk was active around 600 BCE, when power in the middle East was shifting to the Chaldaeans and their city, Babylon. Here he raises the question which had been suppressed in the leading theology of the time: how can God permit evil to triumph? The orthodox answer was that evil was punishment for human sin, especially the sin of Israel and Judah. Here the prophet characterises the imperialism of the Babylonians as like a super-trawler, scooping up nations like fish. How can this be just punishment?

The answer given to Habakkuk is that the vision of God’s justice, granted to the prophets, takes time to be fulfilled, but is real nonetheless. Just people will live by faithfulness to the vision, that is, to the character of God, rather than power politics. In a world of overwhelming injustice, this still seems a good answer.

Gospel, Matthew 17:14-20

14 As they were rejoining the crowd a man came up to him and went down on his knees before him. 15 ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘take pity on my son: he is demented and in a wretched state; he is always falling into fire and into water. 16 I took him to your disciples and they were unable to cure him.’

17 In reply, Jesus said, ‘Faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.’ 18 And when Jesus rebuked it the devil came out of the boy, who was cured from that moment.

snake oil salesman

19 Then the disciples came privately to Jesus. ‘Why were we unable to drive it out?’ they asked.

20 He answered, ‘Because you have so little faith. In truth I tell you, if your faith is the size of a mustard seed you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.’

This passage has been abused by those who fabricate miracles to gain power. Jesus did not mean that people of faith could perform any trick they wanted. Jesus did not literally move mountains, but his faith in God’s kingdom meant he confronted disease as an insult to God’s goodness. The record seems clear that he was able a) to bring sick people back into community with God (by forgiving sins) and b) to restore health. He did not however cure conditions that were incurable by these means: there’s no record of him curing a broken leg, for example. The core of the tradition of Jesus’ healing ministry is that he was able to cure psychosomatic illness. The faith he demands is the trust that God wants health for his children. Professional medical practitioners in UK are those who show this faith most clearly, as well as all who work for the physical, mental, and social welfare of human beings. They are carrying on Jesus’ ministry while those who prance about in faith-healing hysteria are mere snake-oil salesmen.

Healing ministry

Of course prayer for the sick, with the laying on of hands, is a powerful sign of faith in God’s will to heal, but it is not a substitute for medical care. The claim, that some have been healed by the direct action of God, is a gross insult to faithful people who have suffered and died without cure.