Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

God is not unjust so as to overlook your work

and the love you have demonstrated for his name
by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones.

Like much of the New Testament, the primary purpose of the Letter to the Hebrews is exhortation. The Christians, members of a new religion, have had a hard time of it. Regarded with suspicion by gentiles and hostility by Jews, they hardly know what has hit them. They stay with it only because they have found such joy in their hearts, and because they encourage one another.

And they need a lot of encouragement. The high of a religious conversion only goes so far. It doesn’t put food on the table when you’re ostracized in the public market, nor money in the bank when no one hires your services. They can only continue to demonstrate gentleness and patience as they wait for their former friends, neighbors and co-religionists to accept their new identity. And they can encourage one another despite the occasional betrayals as some abandon the faith and return to their former ways.

And so, after patient waiting, Abraham obtained the promise.
A woman in the hospital asked me the difference between faith and hope. Under the circumstances – watching a beloved brother die -- there seemed little difference. And the words are often interchangeable in the New Testament.

But I explained, “We keep faith in our past and its tradition; we love God and one another in the present; and we hope for the fulfillment of God’s promises in the future.”

In trying times we practice each of those virtues:

      We remember what our tradition has taught us, and act faithfully -- with fidelity – according the standards of our morality and our beliefs. Invariably someone will suggest, “These are changing times and the old standards don’t apply anymore!” Sometimes the old standards seem like non-conformity when we were raised to conform to them. But adultery by any other name is adultery, whether we call it a relationship, a live-in friend, or significant other. Stealing is stealing, even when its shrouded by Byzantine bank transactions. Violence still destroys even if its only a simulated computer game.

      Living in the present, we love God and others. The loving, faithful person reverences other people, their sensitivities, sensibilities, opinions and needs. She does not demonize people because they belong to another political party, religion, or race. Love allows one to enjoy the moment, whether in solitude or with others. It is a willingness to be here and stay here, to stay interested and engaged even when it costs more than expected. Love makes sacrifices of time, effort and money without waiting for compensation. Because it has…

      Hope that God will not forget his promises. Just as an apple tree surrenders its fruit in the autumn because the spring will replenish its resources, the faithful, loving, hopeful person expects wonderful things. Hope makes things happen. It dreams, plans and builds for the future. When a person loses hope he invests only in immediate gratification. When a nation loses hope it stops investing in its infrastructure. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
A hopeful community finds ways to include the poor and needy, the odd and the forgotten in its life. It invests in them because they hold the future.

The faithful, loving, hopeful Christian enjoys all the freedom which Jesus demonstrated as he passed through a field of standing grain. He relies on the Lord to show the way during changing times.