1 February 2021
Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
All of the great accomplishments in all of human history are due to faith. It might be faith in God, it might be faith in yourself or in someone else, but you need faith before you can achieve something great. The letter to Hebrews has several examples of how this is so: “Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight” (Heb 11:32-34). The author reaches a point of despair giving all of these examples “What more shall I say? For time would fail me” (Heb 11:32).
Faith is the key to success, but it is also the key to failure. When the time comes for us to fail, and this time indeed will come to every one of us, in order to fail well, we need faith, especially faith in God. “Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated — of whom the world was not worthy — wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth” (Heb 11:35-38). When we have faith that God will raise us again to a better life, as long as we love him according to the teachings of his Son, then we will fail well, by the grace of God, and the world ceases to be worthy of us. We accept our cross and die with Jesus so as to rise with him. We need faith.