Homily: February 1, 2025 Saturday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time (Faith of Abraham)

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 "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go."

When I first read this passage, I became curious about the person and life of Abraham. Who is he? Why was he so faithful to a God whom he had never seen?

I opened my Bible and read Genesis 12, titled ‘The call of Abraham’. It was how the history of salvation began.

Abram’s life, before he was renamed Abraham, was stable and comfortable. He probably had all that he needed and could just relax and enjoy his life into old age. But when he heard the call of God to leave his comfortable home, he trusted, packed up and left. The amazing fact is that he did not even know where he was to go.

Thereafter, his life was full of challenges, yet he remained faithful to God. He heard God’s voice deep within his heart, lived with full confidence in God, trusting in His constant presence in his life. Faith is just that - a consistent and firm awareness that “I am not alone. God is with me. He is providing for my needs. He is guiding me and leading me. Always.”

Yet, can we live with that? How often do we find it easier to put our faith in people rather than in God?

I have claustrophobia. And I am very afraid of going into an elevator. A friend had once attended a healing service as my proxy and heard very clearly the declaration that “someone with claustrophobia, who is afraid of taking elevators, you are healed.” My friend was sure that the healing was mine, but to this day, I have doubts.

And then one evening as I was going to a wedding reception with another friend, as I neared the elevator and saw many people waiting to enter the elevator, I panicked and told my friend I was afraid, I did not want to get in, I could not do it.

Overhearing our conversation, a woman next to us spoke to me, she was a trauma nurse and helped prepare patients for surgery, thus seeing people in panic was an every-day thing for her. Then she took my hand and said, “Stay with me. You’ll be fine.”

I don’t know where my fear went, but at that moment, I trusted her completely.

How easily I put my trust in a complete stranger! And how stubbornly I refused to trust God who knows me through and through.

Jesus is with us always. We know Him, and He knows us. In whatever situation we find ourselves in, He will be there to lead us out.

Do we trust Him? Are we ready to go when He calls, to where we do not know?

May we, like Abraham, step forward in faith, knowing that God is leading us, even when we do not see the full path ahead.

Amen.


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