Faith, Hope and Charitytled Homily
I. FAITH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
A. God’s Saving Acts Are the Basis for Faith
In the Old Testament there is both the faith of God toward man (Deut 32:4) and the faith of man toward God (Ps 119:30). God’s people had seen the evidence: God always proved steadfast and absolutely trustworthy. For that reason it was the duty of his people to accept his word and his commandments, trusting that they were right and good (Exod 14:31, 19:9; Num 14:11; Deut 1:30–33). Throughout the OT, we see the same persuasive argument for faith: “Only fear the LORD, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you” (1 Sam 12:24).
B. The Faith of Abraham
Abraham is the best-known example of biblical faith in God. He believed God’s promise concerning his descendants: “And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6). Abraham responded to God’s call with the obedience of faith (Rom 1:5; 16:26). He submitted his will and intellect to God and committed himself without reservation to God’s will and saving power (cf. Jer 17:5–6; Ps 40:5, 146:3–4) (CCC 142–43). When God tested him by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham demonstrated his own worthiness to be a participant in a relationship with God by readying Isaac for sacrifice.
C. Strength in Trust, Not in Ourselves
Isaiah delivered a stern demand for faith to Ahaz when Israel and Aram made an alliance to attack Judah: “If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established” (Isa 7:9). Only trust and confidence in the Lord will bring the sure hope of safety and salvation: “in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isa 30:15). God will deliver Judah from danger and annihilation, but the way lies not in military alliances and action; hope lies in trusting absolutely in God.
II. FAITH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
A. Faith in the Gospels
Jesus demands faith from those who hear him (Matt 9:28; Mark 4:36; Luke 8:25), making faith a precondition for eternal life and salvation (Matt 9:22; Luke 8:48). In the OT, faith had been a response to the saving acts of God; in the New Testament faith is a response to the signs and miracles given by Christ (Matt 11:1–5; 12:27). All things are possible for those who believe (Matt 17:20; 21:21). Against this response is the hardness of heart and pride that prevent belief (Matt 18:1–7).
John declares the purpose of his Gospel: “that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). Faith is freely given, but it is also a gift from God (John 6:37, 44, 65). The one who believes accepts Christ’s word (John 2:22; 5:47; 8:45) and receives eternal life and so passes from death to life (John 11). (Cf. Dignitatis Humanae, §§10–11; John 18:37, 12:32.) Those who reject this faith are condemned (John 3:18–19): “Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil” (CCC 160).
Acts makes it clear that for the early Christian community, belief is the basic requirement of membership (Acts 4:4; 13:12; 15:7): faith in Jesus Christ as Lord (Acts 5:14; 9:42), by whose grace one is saved (Acts 15:11).
B. Paul’s Theology of Faith
Paul rejects the Law of Moses in favor of faith in Jesus Christ, for the Law does not lead the believer to righteousness (Rom 3:20). The contrast between faith and the Law is a major theme in Romans, with Abraham held up as an example of faith. Paul argues forcefully that Abraham’s faith was conversion, which he underwent before the Law, before his circumcision, “a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised” (Rom 4:11; cf. Gen 15:6; Eph 2:8–10; Gal 2:16). For Paul, those who consider themselves saved merely by the works of the law without faith cannot obtain the promised righteousness that is possible by faith.
We are made righteous by the union of faith with baptism (Rom 1:17; 3:22; 26; 4:5, 9:30; Gal 2:16, 3:8). The Christian is saved by grace (Eph 2:8), and henceforth the Christian, a son of God through Christ (Gal 3:26), makes his life an expression of faith in Jesus Christ (Gal 2:20). “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (Rom 6:6–8). (See also Justification.) Hence, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7).
HOPE The confident expectation of some desired good. Hope entails personal volition, and we must act to bring about what is desired; hope understands that what is desired will not necessarily be attained easily or readily. The opposite of hope is despair, a complete loss of confidence.
In Scripture, hope is intimately tied to faith. As a theological virtue, hope is the supernatural confidence that we will attain the kingdom of heaven and eternal life by placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying upon the grace of the Holy Spirit rather than our own strength. As noted in the book of Hebrews, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Heb 10:23). The hope of the Old Testament finds fulfillment in the New Testament.
I. Hope in the Old Testament
A. Abraham, the Model of Hope
B. The Hope of a New Covenant
II. Hope in the New Testament
A. Christ Fulfills the Hope of the Old Testament
B. Hope in Struggle
C. Hope, Faith, and Love
I. HOPE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
A. Abraham, the Model of Hope
The whole of the OT is suffused with the atmosphere of hope, for the OT is a history of God’s promise to Abraham (Gen 12:3; 22:18), a promise to which God remained faithful even in the face of the manifest infidelity of the Israelites to their own covenant oaths (2 Sam 7:9, 16). Abraham is the model for hope in the rest of the OT, for “Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became the father of many nations” (Rom 4:18).
B. The Hope of a New Covenant
The Lord was the hope of Israel (Jer 14:8; 17:13) and of all Israelites (Jer 17:7; Isa 8:17, 26:8; Ps 71:5). The Lord’s fidelity to his people in the past (Gen 15:7; Ps 13:6, 33:18) points to the sure fulfillment of his promises for the future (Gen 17:8; Exod 3:8, 17; 6:4; Deut 1:8).
God’s promise continued even as the unity of the kingdom was shattered and the kingdoms of Judah and Israel were formed. Hope was tested as the kingdom of Israel fell before the Assyrians in 721 B.C. and the kingdom of Judah fell before the Babylonians in 587 B.C. But through the prophets, such as Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah, God formed his people in the hope of salvation with a clear expectation of a new and everlasting covenant. Hope of this radical redemption and purification can come only from placing trust in the Lord, for only he can give true hope (Jer 29:11; 31:17). Whoever hopes in men is cursed (Jer 17:5), but whoever hopes in the Lord is blessed (Jer 17:7).
Jeremiah spoke of hope even as the threat of the Babylonians approached the kingdom of Judah and as Jerusalem was soon to be destroyed and the people deported to Babylon: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer 31:33; cf. Jer 31:31; 32:38). This hoped-for salvation is promised to all nations (Ezek 36; Isa 49:5–6, 53:11).
II. HOPE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
A. Christ Fulfills the Hope of the Old Testament
In the NT, the hope of the OT finds its fulfillment in Christ.
The fidelity of God to his covenant promises throughout the OT was preparation for the Incarnation and the saving work of the Son of God. Jesus pointed toward the promise to Abraham and its final fulfillment when he declared, “Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad … Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:56–58). In the Beatitudes, Christ gave his followers the confident hope of heaven as the new Promised Land. He assured his disciples that they need not worry about the future; instead, they should have their eyes always set on the heavenly kingdom.
B. Hope in Struggle
The epistles develop this Christian idea of hope. The hope of the Christian is the glory of God (Rom 5:2) and the freedom from sin (Rom 8:20). “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Heb 10:23). Hope is the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul … that enters … where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf” (Heb 6:19–20). It is a helmet that protects us in our struggle for hope in salvation with the breastplate of faith and charity (1 Thess 5:8). The Christian is saved through hope, but it is hope in what is not seen: “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom 8:24).
Hope for Saint Paul is not something easily obtained. Rather, it is found in suffering and difficulties and is sustained and nourished in prayer: “Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Rom 12:12). In the pilgrimage of the Christian life (1 Cor 13:13), we should “boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5:4–5).
I. LOVE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
A. The Range of Meanings
In the Old Testament, a number of words are used for love, but the most common is the verb ʾāhab, appearing with its cognate nouns over two hundred times in the Hebrew Scriptures. It can have both a religious and a nonreligious meaning, denoting the love between human beings, the love of things or objects, the human love for God, and the divine love that God shows to his people.
When referring to the love between humans, ʾāhab describes the entire spectrum of human affections (Gen 29:18, 34:3; Judg 16:4; Isa 57:8), including passionate love and sexual attraction (Song 1:7, 2:4, 3:1, 5:8, 8:6–7; Prov 5:19). Such attraction might entail the eventuality of marriage (1 Sam 18:20) or simple sexual desire (2 Sam 13:1–2; Jer 2:25). Likewise, ʾāhab might refer to the mutual devotion or attachment expressed in relationships, such as a husband for a wife (1 Sam 1:5), parents for a child (Gen 22:2; 25:28), or even a friendship, such as David’s for Jonathan (1 Sam 18:1; 2 Sam 1:26).
B. God’s Unmerited Love
The greatest commandment of the Law, and indeed of the entire OT, is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deut 6:5; cf. Deut 10:12; 11:1, 13, 22; 13:4; 19:9; 30:6, 16, 20). This commandment formed the basis of Israel’s relationship with God. The Lord’s love for Israel was freely given, and the history of the election of Israel, including the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen 12–50), and the release of Israel from the bondage in Egypt testified to that love. God’s love was unmerited and freely given; it was to be an integral part in the accomplishment of salvation history (Ps 47:5, 87:2; Isa 43:4) and the bringing forth of God’s blessings upon the whole of humanity. (See also Mercy.)
In response to God’s love, Israel was called to reciprocate. Hosea expressed the relationship in terms of marriage (Hos 2): “I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord” (Hos 2:19–20). God reached out to Israel as a suitor reaches out to a woman, and Israel was asked to respond (cf. Hos 11:1–4).
God’s love never wavered (Deut 4:37; Isa 43:4; Ps 33:5; Jer 21:3), but the fidelity of Israel was tested and proved weak; it failed in its chief obligation to love God with all of its heart, mind, and strength. Israel was called upon to return in faithfulness to God’s electing love by keeping his commandments (Deut 10:12; 11:1, 22; 30:16). In its essence, that relationship was rooted in the covenant made between God and Israel. In fact, the covenant explains how love can be commanded in the stipulations of Deuteronomy. Treaty covenants in the ancient Near East—that is, those that are forged between a suzerain and his vassal—commonly employ the language of “love” to delineate the obligations of loyalty that bind the covenant partners. In this and many other respects, Deuteronomy and the covenant it establishes between the Lord and Israel mirror these international treaties between kings and their vassal subjects.
II. LOVE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
At the very heart of the history of salvation resides the perfect communion of love: the Holy Trinity. In this perfect divine family, God the Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father (John 14:31), and the Holy Spirit is the bond of love (cf. Rom 5:5) between the Father and the Son. From the love of this divine family God’s entire plan of creation and salvation flowed, for it was his intention that his creation, humanity, should share in the divine life as sons in the Son (CCC 218–21).
A. Words for “Love”
The Greek words for love, agapaō and agapē (which describe willing or committed love), occur well over three hundred times in the New Testament. Similar words, such as phileō and philia (which may also mean willing love but sometimes friendly love), also occur with some frequency, but agapē remains the chief expression for love in the NT. Its general rarity in secular Greek may account for its use in the NT writings, as it was a helpful word to denote the unique perspective on love that Christianity was proclaiming. The Greek word erōs, meaning passionate or sexual love, does not appear in the NT.
B. Love in the Synoptic Gospels
The Synoptic Gospels showcase the commandments to love the Lord Our God with our whole being and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt 22:34–40; Mark 12:28–34; Luke 10:25–28). The two commandments are taken from Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:18. Jesus declares that both commandments are to be followed. In Luke he answers the question “Who is my neighbor?” with the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29–37). By making the good neighbor a Samaritan (Jews had a long-standing hostility to Samaritans), Jesus made it evident that he was asking more from us than merely loving our friends and family; he was asking for the commitment to love even strangers and enemies (Luke 6:27, 32–36; Matt 5:43–48).
By following Jesus’s commandment to love our neighbor as ourself and to love our enemies, we demonstrate that we are willing to live in imitation of the Father. God’s love is manifested in and through Christ and his works, including healing the sick and embracing the sinner. God thus bestows his love, mercy, and forgiveness on those who are undeserving of it (Matt 18:23–35; Luke 15:11–32). God takes the initiative—as in the OT—and it is entirely unmerited (Matt 10:6; 18:12–14; Luke 19:10).
C. Love in the Writings of John
John prefers the term “love” to describe the free and unmerited concern of God for us. It was God’s love for us that caused him to send his own Son into the world that he might bring us eternal life (1 John 4:9; John 3:16, 13:34–35), and the life of God in us is displayed in how we love each other: “No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12; 3:24; 4:10). Jesus is God’s only begotten Son (John 1:13) and is loved by the Father (John 3:35; 10:17; 15:9; 17:24). In return, the Son loves the Father and does what God commands of him (John 14:31; 15:10). Jesus also loved his friends so deeply that he was willing to lay down his life for them (John 13:1; 1 John 3:16) in order to make it possible for them and us to be adopted sons of the Father (1 John 3:1).
In return, the disciples were required to show their own love by imitating the unifying love of the Son and the Father (John 17:21–23). Such a love had to be more than mere words; it had to be manifested by deeds (1 John 3:18), including keeping the commandments of Jesus (John 14:15, 21, 23; 1 John 5:3). Christians should also love one another (John 13:34; 15:17) with the same love that Christ showed to them (John 15:12). In loving Christ, we are loved by God, and God and Christ will abide in us (John 17:23–26).
D. Love in the Writings of Paul
Much as with John, Paul takes a three-part approach to love—the love of God, the love of Christ, and the love of man for Christ and God. Our redemption through Christ is the great sign of God’s love for each one of us: “and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). It was love that sent Jesus Christ into the world and love that sent him to a sacrificial death on the Cross (Rom 5:8; Eph 5:2). The sacrifice of Christ for humanity forms the basis of the Christian life. We embrace the benefits of that loving sacrifice in our total surrender to Christ through faith.
Paul offers the NT’s most profound exposition on the Christian concept of love in 1 Cor 13, where he teaches that the greatest attribute of the Christian community must be love. The gifts of speaking in tongues and prophecy are nothing without love; generosity gains us nothing without love (1 Cor 13:1–3). He then describes the key characteristics of love: “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor 13:4–7). Love never ends, unlike prophecy and tongues; it will survive to the end of time, when it will be perfected. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:12–13).
