Wisdom 18:6-9; Hebrews 11:1-2,8-19; Luke 12:32-48
“Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen†(Hebrews 11:1).
This statement of faith, given us by the author of Hebrews, is perhaps the best definition of faith that I have ever heard.
We are living in a time in which many people are suffering from a crisis of faith. In our information saturated society, with so many voices clamoring for our attention with people spouting off their own personal opinions, truth and matters of faith have become very clouded. Add to this the ignorance of faith that plagues so many Christians it is no wonder that we are seeing a decline in attendance in our churches, and people seeking meaning in so many ways contrary to Christian teaching.
This is why the Church, in her wisdom and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has chosen the format that we use for our Sunday readings. Each week we have opportunity to listen to the ancient writers of the Old Testament through the first reading and the psalm. We listen also to the authors of the New Testament in our second reading and gospel. We hear these same stories over and over again as we cycle through the three year lectionary. The telling and retelling of the story of who we are, and how we came to be as a community, is central to the development of our faith. If we do not know the stories of past generations of believers, we cannot truly know and appreciate the richness of the faith that has been passed down to us.
In the Church’s vision of community we see the family as the first community, the domestic Church. It is in the family that we are supposed to learn those first lessons of faith. We seem to do this fairly well with our young children as we relate the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, and even Moses and the parting of the Red Sea. We are even pretty good about telling the story of the Nativity at Christmas, and the stories of Jesus suffering, death, and resurrection at Easter. This is the case as long as we are able to get beyond Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the scriptures this often is where the lessons of faith come to an end in most families. This is where the Church then expands the image of family to our faith communities who gather weekly to celebrate the Eucharist. The Church, like a loving parent, teaches us over and over again the biblical stories in our Sunday Worship.
Today, the author of the Book of Wisdom, written approximately 100 years before Christ, recalls for the family of believers the event of the great Passover. The author speaks of the faith of the people as preparing them for that night, that they might have courage when the angel of death passed over the entire Egyptian Empire. We are reminded of the great Passover sacrifice which God commanded Moses and the people to offer that night in preparation for their flight into the desert.
The author of Hebrews takes us all the way back to the first Covenant that God made with Abraham and Sarah, our father and mother of faith. In this we are reminded that Isaac, the only beloved son of Sarah and Abraham would become the father of many nations with descendants greater in number than the stars of the sky and the sands of the ocean.
Both of these stories prefigure the great event of our salvation, when Jesus, the only beloved Son of God would become flesh through the faith of our Blessed Mother Mary. Just as lambs were offered in sacrifice by Abraham and Moses as a sign of the first covenant, this beloved Son of God would be offered as the sacrificial Lamb of God establishing the New Covenant. This was a fulfillment of that promise made to Abraham that his descendants would come from many nations. For no longer was the covenant limited only to the Jewish people. The New Covenant is now offered to all people.
That covenant, sealed by the blood of Christ poured out on the cross, is celebrated every time we gather at the table of the Eucharist. It is here that the unbloody sacrifice of the mass continues the bloody sacrifice of the cross. It is here that the Body and Blood of Christ become really present for our spiritual nourishment. It is here that we can see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears God’s loving presence.
And so we listen to the stories of old to remember where we came from. These stories, which we have not seen with our own eyes, become real and visible to us through the action of the Eucharist. We then enter into and become a part of the story through our Eucharistic celebration. As we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ, we become what we celebrate. We become, not just people of faith, we become Christ’s very real life-giving presence in our world.
And so my brothers and sisters, let us not be afraid of being caught off-guard when our master returns. Let us store up treasures in our heart by faithfully celebrating the Eucharist, and by living that faith in our daily lives. Let us be served by our master today, as we eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ. Let us then go forth from the place, renewed in faith, to be Christ’s life-giving presence in our world.
