to look beyond the horizon . . . again

There was once a missionary in the Pacific Islands who was trying to find a better translation for the word hope in the local dialect. Day and night he thought for a better word that would capture its essence and give it a local color, but all words escaped him until one day his friend died.
On the day of burial of his friend, while everybody was weeping, a young boy came over to the missionary and asked him, “Father, why are you not crying? Your best friend died, why are not weeping like the rest?” And the missionary facing the boy said, “I believe that I shall see my friend once more in heaven. There is therefore no need to cry.”


The boy nodded as if he understood. And after the ensuing silence that followed, the young boy spoke once more saying, “now it is clear to me what they have been saying about you Christians. You are a people who look beyond the horizon.”
That day, the missionary came to know the proper translation for the word hope for these Pacific Islanders. Hope means to look beyond the horizon, to have our eyes set beyond the horizon.

Last Tuesday, a newly born baby boy was wrapped in black cloth, placed inside a dust bag and left on the floor of our comfort room. I cannot pass judgment on the intent of the mother and the father to leave their child in such a condition. Perhaps she was ashamed of the child, perhaps he, the father believe he could not afford to see his boy through, perhaps they have realized too late the consequences they have to face before their parents who may disown them, perhaps they were young and they thought that their future was at stake with a child to feed this early in life. There are a thousand and one “perhaps” when things like this happen. Nevertheless the act of giving-up and abandoning a dashingly handsome baby boy is revealing of an attitude pervading our society today, an attitude which can best be described as a failure to look beyond the horizon.
Burdened by their present predicament, belabored by the consequences of their sin, fearful of what can happen to them, they left their child and turned their backs on him. They failed to see beyond the horizon. They failed to see that sin can be forgiven. They failed to see that time can heal all wounds. They failed to consider that the child they threw away as a problem can become a great source of blessings and a bundle of possibilities. But they were burdened instead by the thought of the moment and so they failed. Burdened by problems of the present they reacted and they acted wrongly, and whatever their intentions were they acted sinfully. They failed to look beyond the horizon. They failed to see beyond the present.
Habakuk in our first reading today was also burdened, this time however, not by a personal problem that weigh him down but by what he saw around him - full of strife and violence everywhere and so he shouted, “How long, O Lord? I cry to you but you do not listen, I cry to you but you do not intervene.” This too can be anybody’s cry and it can be ours too.
But God in the same reading answered Habakkuk saying, “for the vision still has its times, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint. If it delays wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.” God wanted Habakkuk to look beyond the present and not give up easily, to see that the difficulties and anxieties of his day are nothing compared to what God has in store for them.
Today too we grieve a lot, we are saddened by so many things, we are burdened by so many unnecessary stress created by the anxieties and the troubles of the present. It is easier now and more common to give up not just on the projects we begun and never finished, but even on life itself. Many of us here may have felt one way or the other that our best efforts have turned to dust, that our many dreams and the idealism they spawned have come to nothing. We live in a world that has forgotten to look beyond the present and turn its eyes beyond the horizon.
Ours is not a perfect world. It will never be, at least in our lifetime. Life will continue to be unfair. There will always be injustice. There will always be an end to our happiness as much as there can always be an end to our sorrows. People will continue to hate each other. We can never reach perfect peace. We can never have a perfect government. We should never entertain the idea of finding a perfect church. Yes we will work for perfection. We will continue putting forward our best effort. But we should never expect too much from what we can d,o for perfection is something only God can do for us.
I cry to you but you do not listen, I cry to you but you do not intervene, How long, O Lord? How long? We do not know. I do not know. Nobody knows. Only this I know, In his time, in his time, he makes all things beautiful, in his time.
Lord, increase our faith. We pray with the disciples, Lord increase our faith. Help us to look beyond the horizon, never permit us to give up and be discouraged. Grant us faith and hope.