THE ETERNAL PROMISE MADE TO FAITH

SUNDAY, TWENTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Isa 35:4-7; Ps 146:7-10; James 2:1-5; Mk 7:31-37

Faith Receives Eternal Inheritance

Faith is the foundation of our spiritual life and the firm establishment of our relationship with God. Hence, the Letter to the Hebrews says it is impossible to please God without faith because those who approach him must believe that he exists and rewards those who seek him. Based on this importance of faith, we have reflectively concluded from the scriptures that the relationship between the faithful and God is nothing less than that of the Father and sons. We would usually say that the faithful are sons in the Son because their status of sonship derives from that of the only Begotten Son of God. The basis for this derivation is that the first encounter with God is through his word, which represents the Son of God. Hence, we proclaim in the creed that the Eternal Word is God from God and Light from Light. It is the word of God that reveals God the Father. Faith in the word means housing the word in our mind and heart. Since the word of God is spirit and life, it causes our sharing in the life of God. As we reflected last week, the new life is anchored by a new spirit conjoined to the Holy Spirit. Living and praying with the Holy Spirit, who feeds us on the word of God while leading us into the mystery of the Son, guarantees our growth and maturity in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.

This heavenly life, a prodigy to the human mind and understanding, is what Isaiah foretold in the first reading. “Say to all faint hearts, ‘Courage! Do not be afraid. Look, your God is coming, vengeance is coming, the retribution of God; he is coming to save you.’” The salvation the people of Israel were praying for was physical and temporal; they longed for political deliverance from their exile in Babylon. But God was promising something beyond their expectation. The word of God was announcing a spiritual and eternal deliverance from evil, sin, and death. The deliverance is not just for the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the dumb; these represent the spiritual state of humanity. The people of Israel were in captivity because of their deafness to the word of God; this caused their lameness, dumbness, and blindness. We suffer these same disabilities because of our deafness to the word of God. The prophecy is about healing for us and all. The water that will gush in the desert symbolised the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our arid and evil minds and hearts. The faithfulness of God to his word will cause these things to come to pass.

The prophecy does not remove the necessity of faith for what is promised by the word of God to come true. As we have already noted, faith is necessary for these things to pass in each person’s life. St. James brings this emphasis to bear on the necessity of faith for our inheritance of what God has promised. The sure identifier of a citizen of the new Jerusalem is faithfulness to the word of God. “My brothers, do not try to combine faith in Jesus Christ, our glorified Lord, with the making of distinctions between classes of people.” He cautioned the faithful about looking at appearances in their ranking of those who come together to worship God. Since Christian wealth is entirely spiritual, we must use faith as a criterion for recognising the true children of God. These faithful ones are the true pillars of the Church, not the physically rich. “Listen, my dear brothers: it was those who are poor according to the world that God chose, to be rich in faith and to be the heirs to the kingdom which he promised to those who love him.”

The lack of faith among his people was the highest source of our Lord's sorrows, pains, and difficulties during his ministry on earth. Walking around his people preaching the Gospel message, the wonderful and heavenly life promised and foretold by the prophets, without much success, caused his tender and loving heart to be sorrowful. He would find no suitable and willing hearts to repose his sacred Godhead because of unbelief. For relief, he would usually wander through the districts of Tyre, Sidon, and the Decapolis region, not to preach but to ease the sorrow in his heart caused by a lack of faith among the people of God. Returning from such a quiet and relieving walk, they brought him a man with an impediment in his speech. The manner of administering the healing is quite expressive of his mood. “He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears, and touched his tongue with spittle. Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’” The mechanical way he worked the miracle showed their lack of faith, which he tried to overcome by physical contact with the man’s ears and tongue. His deep sigh is similar to what he said on another occasion: ‘How long am I to put up with this faithless generation?” Let us read, pray, and believe the word of God to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ so pained by men’s the lack of faith.

Let us pray: O God, by whom we are redeemed and receive adoption, look graciously upon your beloved sons and daughters, that those who believe in Christ may receive true freedom and an everlasting inheritance.