Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time C August 8, 2010

Wisdom 18:6-9  Ps: 33  Hebrews 11:1-19  Luke 12:32-48

1. It is summertime, but our readings have the overtones of the Passover, Easter, and the Heavenly Banquet. We hear of

• The night of deliverance from Egypt
• The faith that brought Sarah and Abraham – a prelude to the faith of the Passover
• The Master who comes home and prepares a feast for his faithful servants.

2. Our readings have to do with faith and trust in a God who makes promises. It is a faith and trust in a God who has the ability to keep those promises/oaths. It is a faith and trust in a God who does in fact keep the promises made to the chosen people. This is the theme of our first reading from the book of Wisdom.

 Wisdom speaks of the promises made to “our fathers”. These were the patriarchs, and they came long before the Exodus experience. These patriarchs kept faith in the promises made by God. Later on the people of Israel showed the same trust as they gathered on the “night of deliverance” even though the odds of Pharaoh and his army were overwhelming.

 The Christian Church gave this experience a different shift. Now it was Christ who had risen from the dead, who gives the bright promise of immortality. Christ gives a promise to share in the heavenly banquet.

3. The reading from the Letter to the Hebrews underlines and highlights this faith. This is shown in the action of Sarah and Abraham, our Father in faith. Here we have a preview of the Exodus experience. The People of Israel have yet to be established. Now it simply one family: the family of Abraham. The reading highlights the faith in the very way story is narrated . We begin each section with the dynamic: “By Faith…”

 By Faith, Abraham leaves his comfort and security of his home to a land, which is unknown. There are no cities, no culture, and no amenities. By faith, Abraham takes God’s Word as a promise.

 By Faith, Sarah makes the unlikely come true. She is a woman past her prime child bearing age. Yet she will be the mother of many nations. She starts with a doubt. She is sceptical and even laughs at the idea. But like her husband, she has faith.

4. The Gospel gives us two pictures of this faith. This faith will result in our invitation and access to the heavenly banquet. This banquet has been  prepared for the faithful before all time.

The first picture is that of a covenantal relationship between Master and servants. It reminds us of the covenants of the past:

• The covenant between God and Noah after the flood. Never again, God promises will such destruction take place. The sign of the covenant is the rainbow.
• The covenant between God and Abraham as we see in the Letter to the Hebrews.
• The covenant that is most well known is the covenant between God and the people through Moses and the sign of the covenant was the Tablets of the Commandments.

a). Now there is an unwritten covenant between the Master and the servants. He leaves them with the responsibility of keeping the household running while he is away. The covenant is based on a Master who has been good to his servants, giving them their food in due season, and providing for their needs. On their part, the servants will do the work entrusted to them, even when the Master is away.

Soon, the Christian Community will have the same responsibility when the Master is taken up into heaven. The Church has to continue the work of the Kingdom until the Master will come again in glory. Then he will take them and let them sit at the heavenly Table.

b). This is the second picture: the Master returns at an hour the servants do not know. He finds them at their tasks, he will gird himself and let them sit at the table and he will serve them. This is totally unreal by human standards. But the Kingdom of God is not what we humans think or conceive it to be.

 This has all the overtones of the Easter Celebration. It symbolises the Heavenly Banquet. It is a scene of joy and a hope that has been fulfilled because of the faith they have in the Master. The Master will not abandon them. The Master will return. It brings us back to the definition of faith in the Letter to the Hebrews: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for”

The things we hope for are not something trivial.

• It is not the hope of wining the Lotto 649.
• It is not the hope of even something serious like the cure of a serious illness.
• It is not the hope of something worthwhile, like a resolution of troubles in one’s marriage or vocation.

• The faith, which is an assurance of things hoped for, - is of a different level altogether. It is the assurance of being invited to sit at the heavenly banquet. There every tear will be wiped away. Then, there will be no sorrow or pain. There will be no room for fear or uncertainty. There we will be at a place that no one can steal from us, nor moth or rust destroys.  It reminds us of the famous line from the book of Job: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth.” Job 19:25.

Like Peter in the Gospel, we can say, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.” John 6:68. Alleluia.