January 30, 2017
Monday,
Week Four, Year I
Hebrews 11:32-40; Psalm 31; Mark 5:1-20.
We Know The Future
Hebrews wants us to
appreciate the hope our faith holds out to us — and specifically, to appreciate
its uniqueness. Our “salvation” is like nothing ever achieved, prayed for or
even imagined before on this earth. The “perfection” or “end” for which we are
destined is totally identified with Jesus Christ. What we call “heaven” can only
be understood as the fruit of his death and resurrection. If we think of it any
other way, Hebrews says we don’t know
what we are thinking about!
Connect this with what we say of Jesus in the Gloria: “You alone are the Holy One, you alone
are the Lord, you alone are the Most
High....” In and through him alone can we enter into the perfection or “end”
that is promised us. Peter proclaimed it: “There is salvation in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be
saved.”[1]
To make this point, Hebrews praises the faith of the great Old Testament figures of
salvation history, from Abel to Abraham and Sarah (11:1-19), from Isaac to
Moses and the People who followed him into the desert (11:20-31), and now the
faith of a list there is “not time to give an account of: Gideon, Barak...
David, Samuel and the prophets.” By faith they “conquered kingdoms, did what
was upright and earned the promises... submitted to torture... were stoned...
homeless... in want and hardship and were maltreated....” Hebrews concludes: “Yet, despite the fact that all of these were
approved because of their faith, they did not obtain what had been promised.
God had made a better plan — had made provision for us to have something better
— and they were not to reach perfection except with us.”
The eschatological epoch of ‘perfection’ was inaugurated by
Christ, and access to divine life has been made available only by him. The Old
Testament saints, who could not be ‘perfected’ by the Law had thus to wait
until the resurrection of Christ before they could enter the perfect life of
heaven [references omitted].[2]
What is this end for which we are
destined, the perfection promised us? It is to become Christ by dying and rising in Christ at Baptism, and, at the end of time, to “form that perfect man who is Christ come to full stature.”[3]
God told Abraham to leave “country kindred and your father’s house” for
“the land that I will show you.” He told Isaac to “settle in the land that I
shall show you.” Neither knew where he was going. He promised Moses he would
lead his People to “a land flowing with milk and honey,” but they had no idea
what it was really like, and God did not supply a road map. Instead, “The Lord
went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way,
and in a pillar of fire by night.” They traveled in faith, without knowing
their destination. But we know ours. It is to be “united,” “gathered up,”
“brought together under a single Head” together with “all things in heaven and
on earth” in order to “form that perfect
man who is Christ come to full
stature.”[4]
This is the end, the destiny, the
perfection, the promise our faith holds out to us. And we already possess it! Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope
in the Lord.
Meditation:
How am I already “perfect”? How will my death change this?
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