SERMON : Faithfulness is the most sacred endowment of the human mind

The theme of the readings of our thirty-second Sunday; 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14; Psalm 17; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5; Luke 20:27-38; speaks of God’s faithfulness to his human creatures whom he created in his image and as immortal. By grace, he made us his children and calls us to live in communion with him. And by his promise which he fulfils, we are destined for eternal happiness in his presence. On this point St Paul was fond of telling his Thessalonian brothers and sisters: “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” 1 Thes. 5:24. St.Paul is telling us the same thing; if we are faithful, he will do it for us. Today, given the prevailing degree of faithlessness, we still need some one like St. Paul in order to convince us too that the above words are relevant to our situation. It is not an insult to any one today if we say that we live in a world of broken promises. We are used to hearing people who take a lot of their time pledging peace while in actual facts they are buying time to put their final touches on their plans for senseless wars. It is in this context that it becomes difficult for us today to contemplate on faithfulness because as far as man is concerned, it is a concept so hard to come by. Gone are the days when a person’s word was his bond and mere handshakes sealed major business agreements. Among people’s relationship, true honesty is becoming almost a legendary. Today people have become so unfaithful that its practice has become the order of the day. And so we stand warned by Marcus Tullius Cicero: Nothing is nobler, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind. In our situation, it is still interesting to note how St. Paul reiterates the principal theme of these readings. He tells the Thessalonians, “The Lord is faithful.” On God’s behalf, this faithfulness will be attested to by the strength and protection that he provides. For Paul, God’s faithfulness gives meaning to our faithfulness in whatever he has promised, since in the end it is his gracious gift that our hearts can be directed to the love of God and to enduring whatever is necessary despite of our present problems. In the Gospel, Jesus confirms the soundness of trusting in God’s promises in eternal life when ironically he was asked by the Sadducees whether heaven or other spiritual realities really existed. The Sadducees did this by employing an example of seven brothers, who marry the same woman one after the other as the preceding spouse died. And they wanted to know whose wife she would be in life after death. Jesus points out that they are totally mistaken about the nature of eternal life, since the blessed will not be married. In his book ‘The Attributes of God’, A.W. Pink tells us why it might not be so easy for man to grasp the faithfulness of God as well as other spiritual realities. He explains that faithlessness today is playing a major role in the kind of destruction that we see around us. This has affected people; many are without natural affection and traitors to their marital contract. Child abuse is becoming ever more prevalent. Many professionals seem to break contracts almost at will. A good number of people lie about the quality of their products, and many fudge in the quality of their work. It is with this background that man today continues to have hard time in grasping what faithfulness would really entail. And at most might have a hard time at believing in it. The views above however do not aim at painting man negatively. Man on the other hand is known to have the capacity of changing his course of action and face the right way. We cannot take for granted his powerful tendency to be faithful to what he thinks is truly important to him. Take the example of how we esteem our family names, our schools or even certain things like foot ball teams. The only problem is how we prioritize what we value in life. We tend to watch over the immediate consequences of our actions, failing to see them in the light of eternity. And this alone means a lot because faithfulness hinges upon what we value as important combined with personal commitment. We can therefore change our attitude; we may not think of the great promises in the Bible, but on how God has answered our prayers so far. This in turn would enable us to reflect on his mighty deeds. Knowing who fights for us and his faithfulness can always change our life. Armed with that kind of mind, we too may have courage to pick up five smooth stones like the young David and get ready to defeat Goliath the giant. Ends