Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
From: Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4
The prophet’s first complaint
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[2] O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and thou wilt not hear? Or cry to thee “Violence!” and thou wilt not save? [3] Why dost thou make me see wrongs and look upon trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
God’s reply
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[2] And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it. [3] For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end – it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. [4] Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
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Commentary:
1:2-2:4. The message and historical references contained in the book are concentrated in these verses. They appear to be a conversation between the Lord and Habakkuk. The prophet has recourse to the Lord for his help to right grievous wrongs (1:1-4). God’s reply is a surprising one, for he tells the prophet that he is going to raise up a people, violent and cruel, “whose own might is their god” (1:5-11). This disconcerts the prophet: How can it be that, to purify his elect, the Lord should use such an irreligious and pitiless nation (1:12-17)? Still, the prophet does not despair; he decides to remain attentive to the voice of the Lord (2:1) – and the Lord does indeed respond to him by telling him in words what he previously told him by gestures: there is a time for everything; obstacles will overthrow the one whose soul is not upright, but he who is righteous shall live (2:1-4).
1:2-4. In his complaint to God, the prophet lists all the things that have gone wrong for the people – wickedness, violence, neglect of the Law, injustices etc. (vv. 3-4). However, what the prophet finds worst of all is the fact that the Lord does nothing about it (v. 2). The vigour of Habakkuk’s words probably lies in the fact that he is not just bemoaning the people’s lot; he is actually praying – and prayer should never be contrived; it should come straight from the heart: “I say to God simply what I want to say to Him, without using sweet words of beautiful phrases, and He always hears and understands me. […] For me, in times of suffering and times of joy, prayer is an impulse of the heart, a glance up to heaven, an expression of gratitude and love” (St Therese of the Child Jesus, Autobiographial Writings, 25).
2:2-4. As if admitting that the prophet is right, God answers his questions. The first point he makes clear is that when he promises something, it will happen: time may pass, but his word will not pass away unfulfilled (vv. 2-3). And this delay is a test of people’s faithfulness (v. 4).
The last verse here (“Behold … the righteous shall live by his faith”) is important in both the Jewish and Christian biblical traditions. Some rabbis saw it as a summary of all 613 commandments of the Law; the writers of the Qumran commentary understood it to mean that he who kept the Law would escape the Judgment; and in the New Testament it is quoted on a number of occasions in connection with the power of faith and the need for fortitude.
However, the verse is difficult to translate; this can be seen in various translations and even in the way the text is quoted in the New Testament. The Letter to the Hebrews 10:38 quotes this passage, working from the Greek translation, to exhort Christians to persevere in the faith they have received: “My righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” Although the author of Hebrews inverts the order of the original, the meaning is unchanged.
Similarly, “faith” (“faithfulness”: RSV note d) translates a very common word (‘emunah) which means stability, faithfulness, faith. It is a quality of God (Deut 32:4) and also of those who honour him (2 Chron 19:9) and who are righteous in his eyes (Prov 12:22). In Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11, St Paul quotes the second part of the Habakkuk verse (“the righteous shall live by his faith”) applied to the individual, to ground his teaching on justification by faith rather than by the works of the Law. St Paul’s use of the verse means that it is very important from a Christian point of view.
St Jerome’s interpretation takes account of both the original audience and the Christian readership: “If your faith is weak and you begin to doubt that what was promised will come about, you will cause my soul great displeasure. But the just man, who believes in my word and never doubts the promises I make, will receive eternal life as his reward…It is clear that these words contain a prophecy of the coming of Christ. The problem they contain will be resolved by him: sin will triumph and punishment be never-ending until He comes” (Commentarii in Abucuc, 2, 4). The verse is similar in style to a proverb (or maxim), and can be readily applied to the Christian life. For example, just as the New Testament says of St Joseph that he was a just man (cf. Mt 1:19), the Habakkuk passage can be applied to him as a sign that justice implies faith: “To be just is not simply a matter of obeying rules. Goodness should grow from the inside; it should be deep and vital – for ‘the just man lives by faith’ (Hab 2:4). These words, which later became a frequent subject of St Paul’s meditation, really did apply in the case of St Joseph. He didn’t fulfill the will of God in a routine or perfunctory way; he did it spontaneously and wholeheartedly. For him, the law which every practicing Jew lived by was not a code or a cold list of precepts, but an expression of the will of the living God. So he knew how to recognize the Lord’s voice when it came to him so unexpectedly and so surprisingly” (St Josemaria Escriva, Christ is Passing By, 41).
who is this?