30 January 2021, General Week 3 - Saturday
FIRST READING
"He was waiting for the city of which God himself is the builder and the architect"
the letter to the Hebrews (11, 1-2.8-19)
Brothers, faith is a way of having what one hopes for, a way of knowing realities that one does not see. And when the Scripture testifies to the elders, it's because of their faith.
Thanks to faith, Abraham obeyed God's call: he set out for a land which he was to receive as an inheritance, and he left without knowing where he was going. Thanks to faith, he came to stay as an immigrant in the Promised Land, as in a foreign land; he lived in the tent, as did Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise, for he awaited the city which would have true foundations, the city of which God himself is the builder and the architect.
Through faith Sarah, too, despite her age, was enabled to be the source of offspring because she believed that God was faithful to his promises. This is why, from a single man, already marked by death, an offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand by the sea, an innumerable multitude could be born. It is in faith, without having known the fulfillment of the promises, that they all died; but they had seen and greeted her from afar, asserting that on earth they were strangers and travelers. However, to speak in this way is to clearly show that we are looking for a homeland. If they had thought of the one they had left, they would have had the opportunity to come back. In fact, they longed for a better homeland, that of heaven. So God is not ashamed to be called their God,
Through faith, when he was tested, Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice. And he was offering the only begotten son, even though he had received the promises and heard this saying: Through Isaac shall their descendants bear your name. He believed in fact that God is capable even of raising the dead; that is why his son was restored to him: there is a prefiguration there.
The Word of the Lord
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