Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/080810.shtml

“Brothers and sisters: Faith is the realization of what is hoped for, and evidence of things unseen.”

The words above are central Scripture and our lives. But what does it mean to have faith? What is the reward of faith? What good does it do us?

Abraham is the example of faith. God told him that his descendants would receive the promised land as an inheritance, that those descendants would be as numerous as the stars, and that He would be their God. These things Abraham would never see come to pass, but he wandered decades without children and followed God because he had faith that God would keep His promise. And God gave him a son in his old age. And when God demanded that Abraham sacrifice Isaac, Abraham did as he was told because he had faith that somehow God would keep his promise, that Abraham would have descendants through Isaac as numerous as the stars. And Isaac was spared.

Though is sounds like a paradox, Abraham’s faith is the realization, the making real, of what he hoped for. Abraham has faith because God will grant him a son. Abraham’s faith is the effect of God granting him a son. Having faith is more than just being assured that something will come to pass, it is responding as if what will come to pass is already true. And because of faith, other people have evidence that something is true, when everything else says otherwise.

In the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, it’s odd that Isaac is so passive to the process. But perhaps that is because of Abraham’s faith; Abraham has faith that God will grant him descendants through this son, because his future descendants are as true as the knife in his hand. And his faith is proof for Isaac of the promise. How faith can be proof of something that is unknowable and yet to happen is a great mystery, only realized as proof after what will be has come to pass. But in the present moment, before faith has become fact, is where God invites us to believe, even though that belief seems foolish and ridiculous.

The readings today all emphasize that in Scripture, those who believed in God when it seemed outlandish to do so were well rewarded. When the Israelites painted their doors with blood during Passover their children were spared. Abraham was blessed with a son when that seemed impossible. We are called to wait for Christ’s return faithfully, to follow the teachings He left us. He has promised those who do so will be well rewarded.

But faith is not believing because of reward, faith is living the victory yet to be won. To have faith, is live the victory of Christ as evidence of His coming. Which is weird, because in our sins we fail all the time.

Having faith is living in conflict like there is no conflict. We struggle between good and evil, but by faith we know good has already won. We stand over Isaac with a knife, though we know the children he brings into the world will be more numerous than the stars. We sin, yes, but with faith, the faith of Abraham, we know His kingdom is already here.

We are poor proof of the victory. It’s because we lie to ourselves that we haven’t won, that we are losing, or don’t care about winning and losing, or have already lost. We need to have faith. We need to have faith in the victory, like Abraham believed in the victory as he tied his son on the altar. We cannot see how we, of all people, can win, but with Christ inside us all things are possible.