Upcoming Sunday Readings: Who the heck was Habakkuk?

The First reading from tomorrow's Mass is from the Old Testament Habbakkuk.  Here it is....

Reading 1HAB 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.

This is a good one to me.  There have been so many time that I have been in a bad situation and felt like God was not intervening when I wanted Him to.  But I'll be honest, I never felt totally abandoned.  I usually could sense that God was telling me to be PATIENT and that good things would be coming.  (I am still waiting for some of those good, things.)  This sounds like what God is reminding Habakkuk as well. 

But when I first reviewed the reading for this upcoming Sunday, my first thought, wasn't, "How nice to read such a good reminder for my spiritual journey!"  I wasn't thinking, "I feel so blessed by this wonderful reading from this very ancient text!"  No, rather my initial thoughts were, "Who the Heck is Habakkuk and is this book even in my BIBLE?!??"

SO, I figured in preparation for this Sunday's reading it would be fun to do a little research on the man who brings us the First Reading this week.

Read the full Wikipedia Article on Habakkuk here.  But here is my brief synopsis.  

Staute of Habakkuk by Donatello.

We Don't Know.  

Okay, just kidding.  We know a little bit.  He was around the time Jerusalem was under the Babylonian captivity because he was talking about the Babylonians and mentioned there was a good chance all of Jerusalem was going to become captives.  

Apparently it is also mentioned in the Catholic's version of the book of Daniel (yes the Catholics have a longer version) that Habbakkuk was transported by angels to Daniel while he was in the Lion's den and he gave him a stew to help nourish him, which to me, sounds like an amazing story. 

Anyway, sorry for my rambling.  But I thought it might be interesting to do a little preparation each week on the readings for Mass.  This is what spoke to me, so this is what I am sharing.

I think the Main lesson for me, is that scripture is SO RICH WITH WISDOM and knowledge, and diving a little deeper into the background and history of those who wrote these words is never a bad idea.

Happy Sabbath Everyone!