19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
First Reading: Wis 18:6-9
Second Reading: Heb 11:1-2, 8-19
Gospel Reading: Lk 12:32-48
“Faith,” the subject of this Sunday’s Readings, has two meanings. First, it means the truths contained in the Bible, the Creeds, or Church documents – as when the priest says, “Let us profess our faith.”
Much of this truth is beyond the power of human reasoning; God had to reveal it. For example, when Peter said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus replied, “No mere man has revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.”
Accordingly, we call it “divine” or “supernatural” truth. Our proper response is belief. We accept it not because it seems true and intelligible to our natural reason, but because God himself has revealed it.
This brings us to “faith’s” second meaning: the human response to divine revelation. Faith in this sense is the supernatural gift we received at baptism, by which we believe without doubting whatever God has revealed.
Faith in the second sense is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” says the Second Reading. Here, “assurance” means “sureness” or “certainty.” Our faith is our sureness, our conviction, that God will keep his promises.
For example, he promised the Israelites “deliverance” and “the destruction of their enemies.” He promised Abraham numerous descendants, although his wife, Sarah, was past childbearing age.
Abraham’s faith is what made him agree to sacrifice his and Sarah’s only son. Our faith is what makes us agree to forego earthly possessions for the sake of God’s kingdom.
We cannot see what God has promised, any more than Abraham or Sarah, who “died in faith without having received the promises.” Nor can human reason give us the required “assurance.” No; we believe God because, like Sarah, we believe that he is faithful.
God asks us to trust him because the relationship he wants with us is one of spousal love (as St. Paul and the prophets assert), and trust is an essential ingredient. (To see just how essential, imagine what would happen if your spouse always demanded tangible or visible proof that you had not committed adultery while you had been apart!)
Without God’s gift of faith, we would remain in the dark about the truths he has revealed, for they seem “obscure to human reason and experience,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Accordingly, we speak of the light of faith, which gives us greater assurance about supernatural truth than the light of human reason can possibly give about natural truth.
“I am the light of the world,” Jesus said. “No follower of mine shall ever walk in darkness; no, he shall possess the light of life.” Calling the eye “the body’s lamp,” he said, “If your eyes are good, your body will be filled with light.” Accordingly, we also speak of the eyes of faith.
The “light of faith” is like sunlight, by which we see in the day things we cannot see at night. It is like X-rays, by which we see through a battered suitcase to the gold and jewels inside.
The “eyes of faith” can see more than ordinary eyes because they are sensitive to “the light of faith.” That is why there are such immense differences between the “faithful” and the “faithless,” especially on subjects like pain, sorrow, sin, happiness, marriage, children, education, life, and death.
In fact, the “faithful” and the “faithless” have trouble communicating, as if they speak different languages, or as if the “faithful” can see while the “faithless” are blind.
For example, the faithless look at a cancer patient and see valueless suffering; the faithful “see” a person being conformed to Christ. The faithless regard a human embryo as disposable biological material; the faithful “see” a person God loves. The faithless look at the Catholic Church and see only her members’ sins; the faithful also “see” that her head, Jesus Christ, is seated “at the right hand of God.”
Father Hawkswell will again be teaching The Catholic Faith in Plain English free of charge every week starting Sept. 15 at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre (33rd & Willow, Vancouver), 2 to 4 p.m.; Sept. 16 at St. Anthony’s Church (2347 Inglewood, West Vancouver), 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Sept. 16 at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre, 7 to 9 p.m.; and Sept. 17 at St. Clare’s Church Hall (2888 Delahaye Drive, Coquitlam), 7 to 9 p.m.
