A while ago, I spoke to a group and afterwards a listener enthused, “I really enjoyed your talk; will it be published?” I replied with tongue in cheek, “Yes, I hope posthumously.” “Good,” said the listener, “the sooner the better.”
Yes, it’s “back-to-school time.” St. Raphael School reopens tomorrow, and so do many other schools. How many parents are excited about school reopening?
Now, we all remember tests and quizzes, probably not always with good feelings.
I’m just going to give you a brief two-part quiz.
Part one:
Name the last two movies to win the Oscar for best picture.
Now try part two:
Think of two teachers who made a difference for the better in your life, and
two friends or mentors who helped you learn something worthwhile.
I bet you named such people.
The point is simple: we often forget “headlines” but we don't forget “heroes and heroines” like teachers and mentors, family and friends, who truly make a difference for the better in people’s lives, help them through challenges, and affirm purpose and meaning in their lives and our own.
The word of God takes us back to the wisdom literature of ancient Israel—generally pithy pieces of advice about how to live and how to behave. Think about some of the common-sense wisdom of your parents or grandparents. “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Government should heed that. Or “A stitch in time saves nine.” Check your gas tank before you drive onto the Howard Franklin bridge. And “Haste makes waste.” If our nation weighed strategically the pros and cons of our involvement in foreign affairs, we might not have so many messes around the globe. Yes, the wisdom in the Bible is as good today as it was centuries ago.
The author today remembers the extraordinary first Passover meal, when the Hebrews celebrated their exodus or liberation from their oppressors in ancient Egypt. The author continues: That same provident God, always faithful to his promises, eventually will send the Messiah who will usher in God’s kingdom of peace and justice and truth and freedom.
Note here how the author counted his blessings, and so too should we count our blessings.
The letter to the Hebrews tells us about two faith-filled people, Abraham and Sarah. I am amazed at the risks they took, when Abraham heard the call of God. They trusted completely in God as they traveled to a foreign land they didn’t know, through deserts and villages full of strangers, staying in shelters, and believing that Sarah would at last have a child. Abraham and Sarah are models of faith, trusting always in an all-good God, despite the uncertainties they faced in their daily lives.
We might ask whether we strive to be models of faith in our communities: always trying to do the best we can and trusting always in an all-good provident God to see us through the challenges of life.
In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus says that we are to be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to welcome him when he comes and knocks. The author quotes Jesus: be alert; be prepared; focus on what truly matters—eternal life with God. In the end, we will be accountable for the kind of person we have become with the time and talent God gave us.
I like to imagine that God entrusts to each one of us a mass of stone, or a lump of clay if you will, to sculpt a disciple with the time and talents we have. To be a disciple of Jesus is to be fundamentally a man or woman of faith, someone who trusts completely in God throughout all the opportunities and threats and disappointments of life, someone who desires to do what God wants even though they can’t always precisely figure out what that is. Remember: it’s the desire that’s important.
The letter to the Hebrews invites us to reflect upon the dimensions of our own faith. Faith is, first and foremost, a gift from God whereby we begin a right relationship with the triune God, a relationship that we nurture through prayer and especially through this Eucharist, the source and summit of our Catholic life. It is the acceptance of God’s promises as true and a commitment to live accordingly. Faith also includes the essential truths we profess every Sunday in our Nicene Creed, from the fourth century.
Faith, in other words, is living in a right relationship with God. And just as there can be various stages in our moral development (Lawrence Kohlberg, for example, proposed six stages), so too there can be various stages in our faith development (James Fowler proposed six stages). We either grow into a relationship with God, or we fall out of that relationship.
This relationship compels us to share the gift of our faith with others, to be missionary disciples. A college professor once challenged students to share their faith with someone else. The images that sprang to those students’ minds were clergy in pulpits, revival tents, televangelists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses ringing doorbells. And the students definitely weren’t into those things.
Many of us share our faith with others even though we may not realize it. Parents and grandparents share their faith when they teach their children or grandchildren the virtues of prayer, generosity, fairness, honesty, and service. So do teachers when they do their best to develop those virtues or habits of heart and skills of mind that will enable students to become good citizens. So do medical professionals when they calm fearful patients with care and encouragement. And, so do citizens when they urge their elected officials to vote for legislation that will promote human dignity and the common good.
We especially share our faith when we do our best to stand up for what is right and true and good. Never forget that the only “good news” some people may ever see is ourselves.
Yes, today's word of God especially in Hebrews invites each of us to be a person of faith, like Abraham and Sarah. How? By trusting always in God's unconditional love for us, his unconditional forgiveness and acceptance of us. By trying to do the best we can each day. Don’t live a life of regrets. Every day, we have so many little opportunities to be alert, to do good for others.
Carpe diem! Seize every opportunity every day to do good for others.
