Habakkuk 1:12 - 2:4 / Matthew 17:14-20
Workers and subordinates will always have something to lament about their bosses or superiors.
Yet, it is one thing to gripe and complain behind their backs, and quite another to face the boss or superior and speak out boldly the grievances.
Nobody would want to do the latter, because there is too much at risk and also too much to lose.
Now, what would it be if the boss or superior is God Himself. Because with God, He knows us through and through, and no thought of ours would ever be hidden from Him.
The prophet Habakkuk, in the 1st reading, was well aware that God knows his thoughts. And as he complains and questions aloud the intentions of God, he even puts his grievances into writing, as if it was for God to see even.
It does seem utterly disrespectful and insubordinate that a creature would act like this before his Creator, yet that is the beauty of our relationship with God.
God will let us get angry and even shout at Him when we don't understand at all the evil that is happening around us and even to us.
Yet in a calm and assuring reply, God said to Habakkuk: See how he flags, he whose soul is not at rights, but the upright man will live by his faithfulness.
Yes, just as Jesus said in the gospel that even if our faith is the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains, all the more we must have faith in God who will act to protect His people from being overwhelmed by evil.
We will always have our grievances and our complains. Yet we must also believe that God cares and loves us much more than we can ever understand.