Thinking Anew:'NOW faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." So begins that powerful chapter from the Letter to the Hebrews part of which we read tomorrow and which is something of a grand parade of Old Testament greats commended for their faith and their achievements.
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called . . . by faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob when he was dying blessed each of the sons of Joseph . . .” and so on. The writer is reminding us that faith means trusting in God come what may.
It is only faith that enables us to believe that the universe is God-controlled, and that in that context, our lives have meaning and purpose.
But the parade does not end on the pages of the New Testament – it is added to generation by generation. The 20th century has its own list of greats. By faith Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood against the evils of Nazism; by faith Max Kolbe gave his life to save another; by faith Martin Luther King gave his people a vision of racial harmony and justice; by faith Mother Teresa worked tirelessly for the poor and the dying; by faith Archbishop Oscar Romero confronted the abuse of power; by faith Archbishop Desmond Tutu opposed apartheid and led his people towards peace and reconciliation.
In an age of cynicism these people not only affirm the power of faith but also how it brings out what is best in the human character when God’s will and purposes are accepted. That of course is easy to say but so much more difficult to do.
In Letters from the DesertCarlo Carretto comments on this passage from Hebrews. "The friendly night is an image of faith, that gift of God defined as 'The guarantee of the blessings we hope for and proof of the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen' (Hebrews 11.1).
“I have never found a better metaphor for my relationship with the eternal: I am this point lost in space; the darkness, like an irreplaceable friend, is faith; the stars God’s witness. When my faith was weak all this would have seemed incomprehensible to me. I was afraid as a child is of the night but now I have conquered it and it is mine.
“The darkness is necessary, the darkness of faith is necessary for God’s light is too great. I understand more and more that faith is not a mysterious and cruel trick of a God who hides himself without telling me why, but a necessary veil.
“My discovery of him takes place gradually, respecting the growth of the divine life in me.”
It is important to realise that great heroes of the faith are not born as heroes. Like all of us they grow up in the world of the ordinary and the routine.
The testing of faith comes to them as it does for all of us, unannounced, uninvited and probably unwelcomed.
The psalmist may talk about “going through the vale of misery and using it for a well”. That may be the case in retrospect but there are no queues at the entrance to the vale itself.
Testing came the way of the Russian poet Irina Ratushinskaya who at the age of 28 was sentenced to long years of brutal imprisonment under the former Soviet regime. Her crime – writing poetry.
The following poem which she wrote in the KGB prison in Kiev in January 1983 demonstrates how her faith gave her the hope and the confidence that one day she would be delivered.
All as I Asked
There will be for me, will be (O Lord, thank you!)/ A far road and new people./
There will be for me, will be/A homeless song and a proud memory./There will be for me/A heaven won by honour, And a cloak beneath my feet./There will be for me - sometimes - A happy story made of wormwood and mint,/A dress, a semi-mask, A lace dance . . . And no one will say: “She saw life and that was it!”
– GL