Fr Marco Lazzaron
ne of the themes of today is faith: that of Israel in reference to the divine promise of liberation from slavery, and that of Abraham and Sarah in reference to the promise of descendants and a new land. Another is that of expectation: Israel, enslaved in Egypt, awaits liberation; our fathers in faith await the promised goods, but will only see them from afar; the servants in the parable await the master’s return.
Like the people of Exodus, called to liberation through the uncertainties and unpredictable hardships of the desert, faith is not obedience to laws established once and for all, nor adherence to truths already defined, but rather a personal, ever new response to the Lord’s calls.
The Letter to the Hebrews also speaks to us about the history of salvation, reminding us of Abraham, who with faith awaits the fulfillment of God’s promises. Here, faith becomes the foundation of hope that never fails, even if the fulfillment of those promises will only be seen from afar. There are times when hope is nourished by visible signs. But there are also times when signs seem unpredictable. Then hope can only live on faith, that is, the courage to trust in the Lord’s promise and therefore the certainty that it is possible to change things by living the values proposed by the Gospel. When Jesus says, “Do not be afraid, little flock”, he asks for this courage. He spoke of the kingdom (that is, the hope of a new existence).
The fundamental attitude that Jesus asks of us to build this more human world is freedom from excessive and distracting worries, which prevent us from “directing our hearts properly”.
This wisdom is essential for discerning signs of hope within the contradictions of everyday life, even when, at first glance, it seems difficult to discern within them some faint seed of goodness, beauty, and life to be embraced. For this reason, we must appeal to the revolutionary force of prayer, that is, the constant effort to grasp the profound meaning of things: the rediscovery of prayer as listening to the Word of God. It then becomes the courageous gesture of the man who “leaves his land”, who walks toward a new land, without possessing certainties and guarantees, but trusting in God’s promise.
“Be ready, with your loins girt and your lamps lit”: Jesus invites us to be attentive to the needs of those around us so as to always be able to recognize the signs of his presence. But for this, we need to keep our lamps lit to clearly see what we must do to follow the words Jesus left us today.
For our reflection:
– How can we cultivate this trust, and what are our attitudes and actions to make it
visible?
– When we pray, what do we ask for? What path do we want to follow, and how do we
help each other, to guide ourselves toward that goal?