Sermon on the Range with Fr. Bryce Lungren
(August 10th Sunday Homily)
Readings:
Reading 1 — Wisdom 18:6-9
Psalm — Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22
Reading 2 — Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Gospel — Luke 12:32-48
Transcript:
I think one of the harder aspects of our faith are not the commands, do this or don’t do that. I think one of the harder aspects is to wait. Just wait. We get a glimmer of promises and stuff, but then we’re called to wait till it’s fulfilled. That’s happened all throughout salvation history. We are still in the midst of it too. Jesus said, hey, I will return, right? He said that 2000 years ago, we’re still waiting, right?
And inherently, we’re not the most patient people. I mean, we’re not today. And I don’t think we were way back when either. To learn to wait well is an aspect of our faith that we need to be taught. Our readings have a lot of this vibe in them today. We’re kind of given an example of faith in Abraham today. In a couple spots in our readings, we speak of Abraham.
Salvation history we call Abraham the father of our faith. He’s the one that our Lord kind of called away from home, made a covenant with, and from him the chosen race kind of came. We know the story of that God promised Abraham that I will, from your descendant or from your son, that I will give you more descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky will come. Okay, he promised him that.
It took a long time for that ever was fulfilled. So we got Abraham, our father in faith, who I would say is an example of patience, but also is not. Again, we know the story of Abraham and even in our reading from Hebrews, it does hold Abraham up as that father in faith. And it says, even though he was past the age of generation, he was able to have a son. So we know the story of Abraham. That promise came early on in his life, that from your son, descendants will come. It wasn’t until he was about 80 years old that he had Isaac. A lot of waiting till that point. But do we all know the full story of Abraham? There was Isaac who came first. Ishmael. Abraham got tired of waiting. He’s like, okay, God’s not going to fulfill this promise. I’m going to take matters into my own hand. And he had a child with his maidservant. Ishmael. He didn’t wait. He didn’t wait well. And there’s a lot behind that.
Just as Abraham got a little impatient with God’s promise and took matters into his own hand, we have the same tendency in matters of faith. I know the Lord said he would be back, but here it is, 2000 years later, he’s still not back. I’m just going to kind of do my own thing. It’s a temptation in the spiritual life to take matters into our own hand. Abraham is an example of that. God works it out, but it still is not part of the original plan.
There’s one side of the spectrum to be impatient, take matters into our own hands in regards to being patient in our faith with God’s promises. But then there’s the other one of just getting super discouraged and saying heck with this, it’s another tendency. We can attest to that temptation in our life too, to just move on. We want to avoid both of those poles.
We want to follow in the virtue of patience, especially in regards to our faith. There’s many examples of this we could follow, but the letter of the Hebrews really does give us the key of what we’re looking for. The author says, faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Because there’s a lot packed into that one line there. Let’s just take the first half.
Faith is the realization of what is hoped for. The realization of what is hoped for. So faith, belief isn’t just in something to come. True Christian faith is a reception of that mystery already. This is where it kind of gets a little wild. Let’s just take this example of the second coming. Our Lord’s promised to return. That’s what our Lord is speaking about in the gospel when he says, at the end here, you also must be prepared for an hour. You do not expect the son of man will come. He’s referring to his return at the end of time that we need to be ready. It hasn’t happened yet, and it hasn’t happened in our lifetime in the temptation to be growing patient.
Let’s just take that example of how to wait well and with the hope that I’m describing of Christian faith. Christian faith, it’s the hope, it’s the realization of what is hoped for. I’m hoping for the coming of Christ. That’s not a distant hope. It’s something I already participate in even now. That’s Christian faith. We already participate in these mysteries even now. Not fully yet, when our Lord truly does come again.
There’ll be a new heaven, a new earth, but in a glimpse already now, and sacramentally, it’s real. Especially here at Mass, when we celebrate the Mass, we’re there, we’re in heaven. We’re at the life, death, the resurrection, the second coming of Christ. This whole mystery is revealed to us. We already participate in it. That’s Christian faith. It’s not a distant waiting for something to come. It’s a realization already.
For what it’s hoped for, you get it? What we’re doing here is already participating in the second coming of Christ. It’s real. It’s not fully yet, but faith tells us it’s real. It’s the realization. Our lives, the Christian faith is full of this mystery. If we can take this little example I just described, big example of our Lord’s return and how to wait well, already participate in that mystery now.
Then in the other aspects that we can grow impatient in, just kind of bring that same concept in. I already participate in the mysteries of Christ. It’s a realization of what is hoped for, even now. It’s not the when’s it gonna happen. It’s already happened in a not fully formed yet, but we do participate in it. That’s how Christians, our Christian faith can allow us to wait well and not grow impatient, take matters into our own hands like Abraham did. To follow his faith of waiting that God will fulfill his promise. But for us now, especially, we’ve been baptized, participate in the liturgy, these mysteries that we await to their fullness of, we already participate in now. That’s the good news. Our letter of the Hebrews really does give us the way forward.
Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not yet seen. May we not grow weary, may we not grow impatient, but may we buckle down and just own the fact that I’m already participating in these mysteries and that’ll be an encounter with Christ and help us to not grow impatient nor grow discouraged.
