The just man will spring up like the lilies
– and flower for ever before the Lord.
| First Reading | Hebrews 11:1-16 © |
|---|
Only
faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the
existence of the realities that at present remain unseen. It was for
faith that our ancestors were commended.
It is by faith that we understand that the world was
created by one word from God, so that no apparent cause can account for
the things we can see.
It was because of his faith that Abel offered God a
better sacrifice than Cain, and for that he was declared to be righteous
when God made acknowledgement of his offerings. Though he is dead, he still speaks by faith.
It was because of his faith that Enoch was taken up and did not have to experience death: he was not to be found because God had taken him. This was because before his assumption it is attested that he had pleased God.
Now it is impossible to please God without faith, since anyone who
comes to him must believe that he exists and rewards those who try to
find him.
It was through his faith that Noah, when he had been
warned by God of something that had never been seen before, felt a holy
fear and built an ark to save his family. By his faith the world was
convicted, and he was able to claim the righteousness which is the
reward of faith.
It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going. By faith he arrived, as a foreigner,
in the Promised Land, and lived there as if in a strange country, with
Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. They lived
there in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and
built by God.
It was equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being
past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that he
who had made the promise would be faithful to it. Because of this, there
came from one man, and one who was already as good as dead himself, more descendants than could be counted, as many as the stars of heaven or the grains of sand on the seashore.
All these died in faith, before receiving any of the
things that had been promised, but they saw them in the far distance and
welcomed them, recognising that they were only strangers and nomads on earth.
People who use such terms about themselves make it quite plain that
they are in search of their real homeland. They can hardly have meant
the country they came from, since they had the opportunity to go back to
it; but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly
homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since
he has founded the city for them.
