Friday of the Third Week in ordinary Time
(Hebrews 10:32-39; Mark 4:26-34)
The teacher coaxed her students. “We are not Americants;”
she said, “we are all Americans.” Although her phrases may sound jingoistic,
she touched on a recurrent theme in geography.
Americans are a pragmatic people.
The author of Hebrews makes a similar statement about Jewish Christians
in today’s first reading.
The passage continues the argument that the author’s Jewish
Christian readership should maintain their faith in Christ. He proposes that Jewish Christians have already
suffered for their faith. If they stop believing
in Christ now, he says, their suffering will have gained them nothing. Like the teacher reminding her students of
American ability, the author tells his readers that they are a people of
perseverance.
In our age of decreasing church membership, the arguments
from the Letter to the Hebrews should not be lost. Faith gives a person an excellent perspective
for living. More than that, it offers
the hope of fullness of life in eternity.
It would be a tragic to throw away this future by ceasing to believe.
