Sunday August
7, 2016
A Reflection
on Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19, N.A.B.
By: Larry T
Imagine
waking up tomorrow morning in a foreign country, China for example. Most of us
would be forced to use lively gestures and animated facial expressions as a means
of communicating with the Chinese people. How useful would wide eyes and
flailing arms be in getting directions to the American Embassy? Also, spoken
Chinese is a tonal language with lots of upward and downward sounds often
described as very bouncy or lively, and to us it would sound like nonsensical gibberish. On the whole, this
would be an unpleasant experience!
Then, imagine
stumbling onto a group of English speaking Italians. What a break! Admittedly
their heavily accented English would be hard for us to understand, but at least
we could communicate with them.
In this Scripture reading Abraham and Sarah traveled to the Promised Land in faith and
became aliens in a foreign country, an uneasy situation to be in, and one that
we can relate to:
1 Faith is the
realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.
2 Because of it the
ancients were well attested.
8 By faith Abraham obeyed
when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an
inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go.
9 By faith he sojourned
in the promised land as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and
Jacob, heirs of the same promise;
10
for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and
maker is God.
11
By faith he received power to generate, even though he was past the normal
age—and Sarah herself was sterile—for he thought that the one who had made the
promise was trustworthy.
12
So it was that there came forth from one man, himself as good as dead,
descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands
on the seashore.
13
All these died in faith. They did not receive what had been promised but saw it
and greeted it from afar and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens
on earth,
14
for those who speak thus show that they are seeking a homeland.
15
If they had been thinking of the land from which they had come, they would have
had opportunity to return.
16
But now they desire a better homeland, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17
By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac, and he who had
received the promises was ready to offer his only son,
18
of whom it was said, “Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name.”
19
He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead, and he received
Isaac back as a symbol.
What do Catholics
have in common with Abraham and Sarah? Like them, we are aliens in an
unfamiliar land. Christians, especially Catholics, should always have a disquieting
sense of discomfort, the uneasiness of being strangers in a foreign land
because, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah, this world is not our homeland;
we are strangers here.
Our Catholic
faith and community identity sets us apart from the Christian non-Catholic and
non-Christian society which surrounds us. Some of the words and ideas uttered
by that society should sound like Chinese to us, like nonsensical gibberish. On
the other side of the coin, our Christian non-Catholic brothers and sisters do
not understand some of our customs and beliefs, and when they speak out against
us our sense of alienation is usually amplified.
What are we
to think when some of our fellow Catholics and Christian non-Catholics endorse abortion,
euthanasia, religious discrimination, or immoral behavior? In this regard they
are like that group of English speaking Italians that we bumped into on our
imaginary visit to China: because of their accent we can make out some of their
words, but we clearly don’t speak the same language.
The author of
1 Peter wrote:
11
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and sojourners to keep away from worldly desires
that wage war against the soul. – 1 Peter 2:11 N.A.B.
This author’s
message is clear: this earth is not our native soil. We are aliens; we don’t
belong here; we are journeying to our eternal home. It’s worth repeating over
and over: we are aliens on this earth; we don’t belong here; we are journeying
to our eternal home.
There was a
common belief among some of the Old Testament Hebrews that they should figuratively
chew on and absorb the Law of Moses daily, like food, so that it would become part
of their nature. Similarly, if we can chew on and absorb the concept that we
are aliens on this earth, such things as pride, materialism, greed, wrath, and
even fear of death will fall away from our eyes like scales, like the scales
which fell from St. Paul’s eyes, and we will be blessed with true vision.
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