Faith and action, gate pass to God’s promises
August 11 2019: Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - C.
A Taiwanese proverb says, “Faith is confirmed by the heart,
confessed by the tongue, and acted upon by the body.”
Our God is faithful a father who does all that he promises.
God does not forget his covenant to save the life of the poor and of all those
who set their heart and all their trust in him. He is always eager to defend
the cause of the poor and does not turn a deaf ear to the cries of those who
seek him. Filled with that assurance, the psalmist exclaimed, “The Lord hears
the cries of the poor, blessed be the Lord” (Ps. 34:7).
God hears our cries when we turn to him. What he asks in
return is faith; an active faith to keep us always close to him and close to
our brothers and sisters the needy. Therefore, the composite theme of this
Sunday’s celebration: in one side, God’s faithfulness to his promises, and in
the other side, faith and action as human way to enter the promise.
The first and the second reading presents us the example of
our forerunners in faith. The book of Wisdom tells us that by their faith in
God, our fathers were given to know before hand the fulfilment of God’s
promises. Therefore, they “rejoice in sure knowledge of the oaths in which they
trusted. The deliverance of the righteous and the destruction of their enemies
were expected by the people of God.” Faith opened the ancestors to the secrets
of God’s salvation and the fulfilment of his promises.
The second reading opens with the most beautiful definition
of faith. We read, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction
of things not seen.” Faith, actually, is the pledge of the realization of all
the promises of God. Faith is the way for us to enter in God’s promises. The
author of the Letter to the Hebrews will then give us example of people with
significant, and one might say, strong faith: Abraham and Sarah. Abraham, by
his faith, we read, received the divine approval, and a promise of a multitude
of heirs. By faith, also, his wife Sarah “received power to conceive, even when
she was past the age” and known as barren.
Faith, we see, can make all things possible. Faith, however,
must give us the courage of hope in the future. Who says hope in the future
talks of the quality of being awake, of keeping watch. Here comes the
exhortations of Jesus in the Gospel to be always vigilant, ready for the coming
of the Lord. God’s promises, without doubt, will be fulfilled. Of that, we have
the assurance by faith. Nevertheless, we must not be sleepy. We must keep our
faith active and always at work.
Many, today, are those who boast of their faith and their
belonging to Christ. They sing to anyone who would hear from them their belief
in the Lord and their belonging to the Church. Unfortunately, those so-called
Christians are only active in the church, members of all the groups and
associations. They are good church goers and of a religiosity inside the walls.
Once outside the church nowhere we can see their faith at work; inactive in the
society, indifferent to the need of others.
Genuine faith is not a matter of
belonging to a community or a deep trust in the Lord. Such a faith makes of
you, only a good member of the Church, but not a Christian, that is, disciple
of Christ. Sadly, many are the church goers who are not good Christians. They
have a sleeping faith, because feeling no concern for anyone’s need. The Lord
exhorting his followers to vigilance says, “Let your loins be girded and your
lamps burning.” This is an invitation to join action to our belief, to develop
a faith which is always at work.
It is scientifically proved that
an organ or a cell at work does not sleep. Therefore, an active faith will
always be watchful, vigilant and ever ready. The faith of Abraham was active;
so too, was the faith of Sarah. That is why they saw the fulfilment of the
Lord’s promises.
Genuine faith does not lead to
get blind or indifferent to the need of our brothers and sisters. Instead, it
opens to action. Thus, the interpellation of St. James “Indeed someone may say,
‘You have faith and I have works.’ Demonstrate your faith to me without works,
and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.” (James 2:18)
That is a call for us to cultivate as well a head,
heart and hand faith; that is to believe in God inside the church (Head), to
feel compassion for the needy (Heart), and to work in order to answer to their
need (Hand). True faith reaches its perfection only when it combines these
three aspects and becomes action. Thus, it is obvious that a faith without
action is dead, just a mere speculative spiritualism.
Comments
Post a Comment