August 07, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

August 7, 2016

19th Sunday OT

Wisdom 18:6-9; Psalm 33; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 or Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-12; Luke 12:32-48 or Luke 12:35-40

I remember this story about an old lady who was brought into the hospital for an operation.  As she was being wheeled into the operating room, she got nervous and said to the doctor, “Doc please be gentle with me; this is my first time to be operated on.” The young doctor glanced at her and said, “Ma’am don’t worry, we are in the same situation. This is also my first time to do an operation.”

If the doctor tells you that your operation will be successful and you believe his word even if you’re totally ignorant of how it will work out, that’s faith. The same is true with faith in God. There are many ways of describing faith. But how do our readings for today describe faith in God?

Let us reflect on this in three points:

FAITH IS BELIEVING IN GOD EVEN IF WE DO NOT SEE HIM. This was how the Jews experienced faith in God in the first reading. God promised them that He will save them from slavery in Egypt. The first reading described how the Jews prepared themselves that night when they are about to leave Egypt.  But prior to this event, remember that Moses talked to Pharaoh many times to allow the Jews to leave Egypt, but Pharaoh refused to let them go. But how come the Jews were sure that God would lead them out of slavery in Egypt that night? The reading says, it is because of faith. They have not yet seen God. But since they believe in God’s promise, they prepared that night and believed that something good will happen to them. True enough, that night God led them out of slavery in Egypt.

My dear friends, some people say that to see is to believe. But our first reading tells us that even if we cannot see God, we can believe in Him. This is faith. Why should we believe in a God whom we cannot see?

FAITH IS BELIEVING IN A TRUSTWORTHY GOD. The second reading tells us that God’s word is credible and He will never ever fail us. Just look at the experience of Abraham and Sarah - at the age of 75, God called Abraham and promised that he will be given a vast land and many descendants. That seemed humanly impossible especially when you have reached that age of maturity in life. If Abraham was 75 years old, Sarah his wife must also be in the same age range. But since Abraham and Sarah thought the one who made the promise is worthy of trust and worthy of belief, even if the promises seemed absurd and impossible, they chose to believe and have faith in God. True enough, in God’s time, God fulfilled his promise. 25 years later, Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah. And many years after that, God gave the Israelites the promised land of Canaan to the descendants of Abraham.  This tells us that we can never be wrong in believing in God. God is faithful to His promise. He is worthy of our trust. He is worthy of our belief. He is worthy of our faith. How do we cultivate our faith in God?

FAITH IS MAINTAINING OUR CONNECTION WITH GOD. Jesus in the Gospel tells the story of a foolish servant who loses his connection with the master, the moment the master leaves the house. He takes advantage of the situation and assumes the role of being the master: he becomes abusive to his co-workers and does not think that the master will return at a time when he least expects it. He is a foolish servant because he easily forgets who the real master is.

That is why Jesus tells us we must be vigilant and prepared. How? By not losing our connection with the master. Even if the Master seems to be absent, even if we cannot see the Lord with our eyes, maintain your connection with Jesus. Let us not terminate our connection so that we may not do things that are against His will. This is what we call faith. This is the faith that Abraham and Sarah exemplified in the second reading. This is the faith that the Jews manifested in the first reading.

What kind of servants are we? Are like the faithful servant who maintains our connection with God even if we do not see him? Or are we like the foolish servant who terminates our connection with God? In this mass let us beg for the grace to have faith in God even if we cannot see Him. Our God is worthy of our belief and trust. Let us maintain and strengthen our connection with God at all times.  Amen.