Hopeful Vision of Faith

This Sunday's first reading is one of my all time favorite. In fact part of it is included in my email signature.

It is from the prophet Habakkuk (Hb 1:2-3; 2:2-4):

"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?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and clamorous discord.
Then the LORD answered me and said:
Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets,
so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
if it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash one has no integrity;
but the just one, because of his faith, shall live."

For me, the journey of faith is really the act of hope: hope that love will win out over hate, peace over violence, solidarity over suffering. Sometimes it seems like this hope is for the impossible. Yet God is in the mix, and so are we as co-creators and keepers of the vision of God's reign of justice and peace.

For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not be late; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.