The image of the Jewish people as "fish of the sea" chosen by Habakkuk in today's first reading, is especially appropriate today as we contemplate one of the most famous Catholic victims of the Nazi terror - St Benedicta of the Cross - better known to most as Edith Stien. She died together with an estimated six million other Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other "unacceptable" people, caught in the nets and by the hooks used by the Nazis to exterminate them.

In answer to Habakkuk's complaint about this mystery of why so many innocent people had to suffer as victims of brutal regimes - whether it be the regimes of the Babylonians, the Nazis, or the Burmese generals, the Lord promises "a vision for the appointed time" that "does not lie" And what the vision reveals is that "the righteous live by their faith." Later in the text God will offer his promise of justice, but it is by our keeping faith with God, even in times of persecution and terror, that St. Teresa in her time, and the many victims of injustice in today's Burma, have given witness to the greater strength and power of God. Indeed, in them we see the faith that Jesus talks about in the Gospel today, a faith that is strong enough to move mountains - strong enough to give up one's life, after the pattern of Jesus' own example, because of a love which embraced their hearts.