Sunday 19C
7 August 2022
Ws 18:6-9
He 11:1-2.8-19
Lk 12: 32-48
From Sunday to Sunday, we journey by faith. The Church is the people of God journeying by faith through time and history. According to the Letter to the Hebrews which we heard as our second reading, Abraham was among the first ones who journeyed in faith. He can be called the “father of our faith”, the father of all who believe. What is it exactly that we call ‘faith’? What makes you a believer, a man or a woman of faith?
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go.”
Here is a first step in faith. God promises something. In the case of Abraham it was a land. Now this land can become a symbol of all that God promises. ‘If you believe in me and act according to my commands, you will go to heaven’. Abraham trusted and obeyed God’s calling. His faith immediately translated into an action. Because of his faith, he did what God commanded him to do.
The first step on the journey of faith is to obey. We obey what Christ taught, what Holy Church hands on to us. We obey because we trust. God cannot deceive me. He will not fail me. I do not know exactly where the journey leads, but I trust my guide. The good Shepherd leads His flock. We are at peace. We walk in confidence.
Abraham, his wife Sarah, “These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar”.
This is now the last step on the journey in faith. Abraham died in faith. He did not reach the end of his journey here below. His journey did not stop before his death. His whole life was his journey, and death was the last step on his path. This is quite remarkable. We generally agree to believe for a while. We trust someone who makes a promise. But when nothing comes, we become cautious; we give up our hopes; we do not trust someone who has not been able to fulfil his promises at least in part any more .
Abraham did not see the full accomplishment of God’s promises, but, says the text, he saw it and greeted it “from afar”. When you are on a pilgrimage, say to Compostella, your heart is full of joy when you can see from afar the city you have been walking towards for days. The inner image which had begun to grow in your mind meets with the reality you can see from afar. Similarly, during his life’s journey, Abraham grew in faith to the point that he trusted God more and more. Although he had not received the promise, he grew in the knowledge of God and of God’s promise. He saw it from afar.
By journeying in faith, we get to know God, to draw near to Him. We understand more and more that, much more than any gifts he could make to us, God’s real desire is to give Himself to us. When we begin to see the gift of God, our heart widens in peace and joy. St Benedict says that as we progress in faith, “our hearts shall be enlarged, and we shall run with unspeakable sweetness of love in the way of God’s commandments”.
Abraham dies in faith and joy. He has the conviction of the things he has not yet seen. He knows God better and better, he trusts God more and more.
When you begin, you believe and you obey; you obey because you trust. When you finish your journey, you believe, you see the promised land from afar, and you die in peace; you die in peace because you trust. This seems rather simple, and if not quite straightforward, at least clear enough. But is it always so simple?
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son” for “he considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead”.
This is a more mysterious step in faith. Can you believe the one who promises light, when he gives you darkness? Can you believe someone promising life, when he orders death? Can Abraham trust God to the point of offering up his beloved son Isaac, when this son is the very reason why Abraham can die in faith, certain that the promise will be fulfilled for his son and his descendants?
Yes, he can, says the Letter, for “he considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead”. In other words, he really believed that God was God, that is to say, that He is able to give life even through death. In some way Abraham believed what we, too, believe when we celebrate Easter, when we are baptised, when our sins are forgiven and when we celebrate Mass. He believed “in Him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom 4:24-25).
Abraham teaches us faith by his obedience. He teaches us faith by his peaceful and joyful hope. He is really our father in faith when he teaches us faith in apparent contradiction, when God seems to be acting against what He promised. In such a case, faith understands that God’s reasons are higher than ours. Faith does not discuss, does not complain, but obeys, out of love, in sheer confidence, out of superabundant trust.
Through genuine faith, we are given to reach God in His truth. We know beyond our understanding, we trust beyond our confidence, we act beyond our human limits. God’s truth and His power take possession of our mind, our heart, our life. We begin to see the world, ourselves, everything and everyone in the light of divine truth, and to act in the world with the power of God. Life, true life, has begun. It will have no end. Shall we be, like Mary, sons and daughters of Abraham? Shall we live by faith?