AN EXPERIENCE OF FAITH - LIVING IN TENTS

XIX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Hebrews 11:1-2,8-19

Abraham is called our father in faith and we the believers are his children (Gal 3:7).

Abraham represents a new way of living and finding meaning in one’s life. Abraham lived his life in faith, that is in a relationship of trust in God. In the letter to the Hebrews, we find a reflection on the faith of our forefathers, mainly on Abraham’s life. The experience of faith is brought about by God’s initiative. He is the one who takes the first step: God addresses us and calls us. Faith. Once called, we must answer. “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call”. Faith implies obedience, that is, the acceptance of God’s call, putting ourselves at his disposal. This is made possible by our trust in the caller, that is God. Abraham was called to leave his country and go somewhere else and he obeyed. The obedience implied to “set out without knowing where he was going”. It is a journey into the unknown. Faith is always a journey, in which we move forward, uncertain about the direction, being guided only by the trust we put in the Lord. To pass through this world as travellers, we accept to live as foreigners “in a strange country”. Here on earth, we have no permanent abode. Like Abraham, we “live in tents”, while looking“forward to a city founded, designed and built by God.”

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks also of this experience of living in tents:

“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened — not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” (2 Co 5:1-4).

In this Sunday’s gospel (Luke 12:32-48), Jesus presents some of the implications of living by faith:

• “There is no need to be afraid”. Time and again, Jesus calls on us to be confident. He is with us. God is our refuge and he protects and guards us, “for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.”
• We must get a “treasure” in heaven. The wealth in this world is useless. We must use whatever we have to get “purses that do not wear out” and that cannot be stolen from us.
• We must be “dressed for action and have your lamps lit”. We must be in a state of readiness to welcome the Lord when he comes and be ready to open for him.
• We must be the faithful steward, worthy of the trust placed in him. A good steward must be reliable and hardworking. That’s what the Lord expects from us.
• We may ask what is all this for. Jesus tells us that the Father will give us the Kingdom. And he goes a bit further saying that “he will put on an apron, sit them down at table and wait on them.” In the book of Revelation, we have something similar: “I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20).
• The sort of unfaithful is to be cut off from the Lord.

“The Lord looks on those who revere him,

  on those who hope in his love,

to rescue their souls from death,

  to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul is waiting for the Lord.

  The Lord is our help and our shield.

May your love be upon us, O Lord,

  as we place all our hope in you.” (Psalm 33)