2 February 2019 - Saturday of the 3rd week of Ordinary Time - Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19

       We have been hearing from the letter to the Hebrew in our 1st readings all this week.  The first part of our reading stands out to me today.  It states: “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.  Because of faith, the ancients were well attested.”  At my parish of St Jude, we are in the middle of an evangelization program called ALPHA, similar to Christ Life that a lot of parishes are doing in the Jackson area.  Last week, our theme for ALPHA was faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church asserts that faith is a personal and communal relationship. It states: “Faith is first of all a personal adherence . . . to God. At the same time, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed”  In our personal faith, we say, “I believe in God.”  We have a personal relationship with the Triune God, with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  But there is also a communal relationship to faith as well, beyond what is a private act.  Our personal faith brings us into a relationship with the people of God.  The faith of the entire people of God strengthens us in our relationship with God.

      One statement on faith in the video from our ALPHA program stated that “faith is not a blind leap, but a step based on evidence.  I don’t know about you, but for me, sometimes faith takes a leap, a big BIG leap.  When I left to be a missionary in Ecuador before, having never spoken Spanish before, having never lived in the jungle before, not really knowing what my life would be like down there, it took a big leap of faith.  Faith is not always rational.  Faith is often not the easiest thing to do.  But faith is where we are called according to God’s will.  As our reading states, Abraham obeyed when God called him to go out in faith, not knowing where he was to go. While we can say that faith is a gift from God, that it is not something we can do on our own, we also must do our part and respond to God and to be active in our faith out of our own free will.  Indeed, by faith, we journey with the Lord.