Nineteenth Sunday – Ordinary Time Cycle C
Reflecting on Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Imagine this: Abraham and Sarah had no idea where they were going when God sent them out to a land they’d never seen. In a dangerous world they set out to travel hundreds of miles in order to take possession of a land about which they’d never heard.
Abraham went out, not knowing where he was supposed to go
Why? Because they were convinced that God had instructed them to do that. After they completed that huge marathon of trust it must have become easier to believe all the other promises God had given them, even though it was impossible to imagine how any of them could ever be fulfilled.
Faith is like a muscle. You have to work at it to make it strong enough to lift you up. The author of the letter to the Hebrews was flexing the muscles of the early Christian believers by reminding them that the same God who was faithful to Abraham and Sarah will be faithful to them too.
My great friend Sr. Macrina Scott, O.S.F. reminds me that, in times of anxiety or fear, I should just remember that the same God who was faithful in the past will of course be faithful in the future. That’s easy to recall during these long, luscious summer days of peaches and corn on the cob. When the November winds blow a few months from now we’ll need to remember, once again, that faith is the evidence of things not seen.
Sharing God’s Word at Home
In what ways does remembering God’s faithfulness give you strength?
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I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were already burning (Lk.12:49).