27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C (2025)
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 (8)
2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14
Luke 17:5-10
October 5, 2025
The prophet Habakkuk is lamenting the way things are for the Israelites. He has good reason to lament as they are overrun by their enemies and he thinks God is failing to do anything about it.
He cries out for help but feels like God is not listening. He asks for God’s intervention but feels God does nothing. He still believes in God but complains about what seems to be God’s lack of action.
Like Habakkuk, I cry out to God for help. Enough is enough! I pray for God to intervene in the terrible things that go on today. Yet, it seems like God doesn’t answer as bad things keep happening.
Why were the Israelites defeated by their enemies? It wasn’t God’s fault. Israel had turned to a life of sin. God responded by allowing them to suffer the consequences of their sins. They wanted to do things their way and God let them and withdrew his divine protection. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Why do bad things happen today? Because we sin. Here I speak collectively. It is not just our individual sins that we need to consider. For instance, society is losing the respect for life. A consequence of this is more violence, most often seen today in the form of mass shootings.
There are people today rejecting God’s Truth. From this, with no foundation for truth, we are becoming more and more polarized. This isn’t God’s fault. He didn’t take away his Truth. People are choosing to reject it.
Habakkuk asked, “Why do you let me see ruin, why must I look at misery?” If we do not see the ruin, we do not understand that there are consequences for our sins.
One might want to respond, “Ok. We’ve seen the consequences. God can fix everything now.” Why doesn’t He?
God does answer our prayers. He does so in accord with his will and at the proper time. Hum…when is the proper time? Why not now? Some would say God is teaching us patience. I understand that (as I don’t have much patience.)
I think God is also leading us to change our attitudes. What is our attitude when our prayers seem to go unanswered? Do we harden our hearts to God’s voice? Maybe God is responded by telling us what we should do but we fail to listen. Or perhaps we hear what God is saying but we choose not to do it because it requires a sacrifice we are not willing to make. Perhaps God is calling you to give up something you are holding on to.
What should our attitude be in prayer? As the psalmist says, “Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving.” We need to enter into prayer with an attitude of gratitude for what God has done for us in the past. In doing so, we ask for God’s help with hope rather than lament and dread.
We need to, as the psalmist also says, “bow down in worship.” To bow down in worship is not merely to bow down our bodies. We need to bow down our heart to God. We need to surrender our will to his. We need to remember that God is the one who is all-knowing, not us. We do not know better than God.
We also need to bear our “share of hardships for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” Society is rejecting “hardship.” We reject suffering as something to be eliminated. We fail to see that suffering has value. If Jesus had not suffered, we would not be saved (see my article “Finding Value in Suffering”).
Are you willing to suffer hardship?
Are you willing to put effort every day into being a disciple of Jesus?
Or are you just lukewarm in your faith?
Do you know what our Lord does with people who are lukewarm in their faith? “I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16).
Jesus faced hardship for you and for me. He expects nothing less of us.
The apostles were people of faith. Yet, they know their faith was not perfect. They asked Jesus to increase their faith.
When life seems too hard for us, rather than expect God to eliminate our hardships, we do better to ask him to “increase our faith” so that we might bear our share of hardship with “strength that comes from God.”
Peace,
Fr. Jeff