THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH

Meditation for Saturday of the 3^rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year B
(Heb 11:1-2, 8-19; Mk 4:35-41)

 Drawn by the great promise in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, we continue our journey to participate in the awesome merits from our High Priest. Faith becomes the most important vehicle that will drive us to this destination. Keeping our faith alive and applying it in our daily lives becomes an unavoidable solemn duty for all who look forward to the great promise in the ministerial priesthood of Jesus Christ. Hence, today’s reading explains faith and backs it up with the practical example of Abraham.

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to go to a place he did not know to receive an inheritance. Think about how Abraham’s faith became a strength that made him to persevere even when he encountered difficulty in the land of his sojourn, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob. Again, let us reflect on how beautifully the faith of Abraham ‘permeated’ throughout his household. Sarah’s faith was described in the same way as that of Abraham. The endurance of Abraham in faith cannot be separated from that of Sarah, Isaac and Jacob.

Abraham’s faith was so secure; his conviction was unshakable, such that he was ready to offer back to God the immediate answer to his prayers in order to keep his faith in God intact. “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only-begotten son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your descendants be named.’” He believed that God was able to raise men from the dead. It was on the authority of this faith that he got Isaac back. 

This, too, is the authority of the faith we have in the resurrection as we battle the storms of life. This is the great faith expected of us as we continue to rove over the waters of life. The assurance of faith we have in Christ Jesus, our High Priest, is stronger than hunger, health, sickness, poverty, wealth, and  even death itself. Amen.

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Saturday  January 30^th, 2021.
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