Please read the passage before reading the homily.
Today and the rest of the Sundays of August, we will be reading from the letter to the Hebrews. Last year, in October and November, we read from the first two parts of this letter, the parts about the grandeur of Jesus Christ and of the great work as High Priest and sacrifice. This year we read from the third and last part, where the author applies the teachings to our lives.
The saving work of the sacrifice of our High Priest Jesus Christ has great power to save us. We, who have sufferings in this life need to put our faith in Jesus. We trust in the saving and blessed blood of Jesus. Jesus is the architect and builder of our faith.
The author lists for us many examples of faith. He includes Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham and his wife Sara. Our reading focuses on Abraham and Sara.
The faith of Abraham is that he walked with the Lord even when he did not know where to walk or when he would be in the place the Lord wanted him to be. He trusted in the promises of the Lord, that God could fulfill his promises to an old man and his very old wife.
“Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” It is also a relationship between persons, with a basis in trust. The example of faith for us is Jesus himself. Through his faith in his Father, he undertook the cross and exercised his priesthood, faithful to the Father in all things.
God wants relationship with is. For this reason, God sent the Son to us as our priest, one like us in all things, except sin. The Son’s death destroyed our hostility towards God once and for all. The resurrection of the Son restored our friendship with God.
Like Abraham and Sara, and like all the holy ones of the Scriptures, we walk by faith, not by sight. With Christ our High Priest, we live by the faith by which we shall live for ever with the architect and builder of our faith.