19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022
Wisdom 18:6-9, Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19, Luke 12:32-48
The words spoken by God in the parable recounted in last Sunday’s Gospel reading are perhaps ringing in our ears still: “Fool!” for having so much concern for and attaching so much value to material things and security for your own personal future.
In today’s gospel reading Jesus is taking a much gentler approach to the future; “be ready and dressed for action, waiting for your master to arrive”. The teaching is all about the balance that we need to strike between living in this material world with all its cares and worries and preparing for the world to come, the eternal life that the Lord so often promises us. There is also a contrast drawn for us between the ‘darkness’ of the world and the ‘light’ of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The letter to the Hebrews seems to be addressing a response to the words of Jesus “You too must stand ready …” Only Faith can guarantee what we need in order to be ready and prepared for the Lord when He comes. When Abraham set out for the Promised Land he relied solely on Faith. When he and Isaac and Jacob reached this place they lived there in mere tents while Abraham looked forward in Faith to a city founded and designed by God.
When Sarah was told that she, in her old age, would conceive it was Faith that sustained her and brought about what had been thought impossible. Again, when Abraham was tested by God to do what seemed utterly wrong, sacrificing his son, his Faith led him on and assured him that God had a plan. And so it was throughout the History of Salvation. “It was by Faith” that each of our ancestors was able to act and go forward knowing that God’s plan would be fulfilled. (It would be a rewarding exercise for any of us to read the entire Chapter 11 of Hebrews from which today’s gospel comes. 18 times is the phrase “It was by Faith …..”)
The first reading today makes reference to the night on which the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt. And the reading from Hebrews continues this theme in showing how Abraham and Sarah moved from very dark moments into a world designed by God. These two readings have the theme of persevering through the darkness of night and prepare us for the Gospel message today where Jesus speaks of watching through the night.
How we approach the darkness in life will depend very much on our Faith. Viktor Frankl, a neurologist, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor observed his fellow inmates of Auschwitz. He describes the experience of evil (darkness) as like a breeze blowing. Breeze can have the effect of extinguishing a weak flame of fire OR it can fan the flame of a stronger fire into a mighty blaze. So too with the flame of Faith. An experience of evil or darkness can damage our Faith, if it is weak, but can fan a strong Faith into a great flame.
We pray Psalm 138, which tells off the sureness of God’s presence even in the night of darkness; “If I say ‘Let the darkness hide me and the light of day around me be night,’ even darkness is not dark for you and the night is as clear as the day”.