“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go...” (Hebrews 11:8.)
Saint Gregory of Nyssa (part 2 of the background of Saint Gregory of Nyssa is found here) offers the following insight on this verses from today’s Gospel:
“Let [the one who is waiting for the Lord’s second coming] therefore wait for that time then which is, necessarily, in the same time frame as the development of humanity. For even while Abraham and the patriarchs desired to see the promised better things, they did not stop seeking the heavenly country. This is what the apostle says when he declares that even now they are in a condition of hoping for that grace: “God having provided some better thing for us,”6 according to the words of Paul, “that they without us should not be made perfect.” If those then, who by faith alone and by hope saw the good things “afar off” and “embraced them” — if they bear the delay as the apostle bears witness, and if they place the certainty that they will enjoy the things for which they hoped in the fact that they “judged him faithful who has promised,” what should the rest of us do who perhaps do not have a grasp of that better hope from the character of our own lives?
Even the prophet’s soul fainted with desire, and in his psalm he confesses this passionate love, saying that his “soul has a desire and longing to be in the courts of the Lord.” [He still has this desire] even if he has to be demoted to a place amongst the lowest, since it is a greater and more desirable thing to be last there than to be first among the ungodly tents of this life. Nevertheless he was patient during the delay, considering, indeed, the life there blessed, and accounting a brief participation in it more desirable than “thousands”[of days] of time. For, he says, “one day in your courts is better than thousands.” And yet, he did not become dejected at the necessary dispensation concerning existing things. He thought it was sufficient bliss for a person to have those good things even by way of hope. This is why he says at the end of the psalm, “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that hopes in you.” (On the Making of Man, 22.)
Even the prophet’s soul fainted with desire, and in his psalm he confesses this passionate love, saying that his “soul has a desire and longing to be in the courts of the Lord.” [He still has this desire] even if he has to be demoted to a place amongst the lowest, since it is a greater and more desirable thing to be last there than to be first among the ungodly tents of this life. Nevertheless he was patient during the delay, considering, indeed, the life there blessed, and accounting a brief participation in it more desirable than “thousands”[of days] of time. For, he says, “one day in your courts is better than thousands.” And yet, he did not become dejected at the necessary dispensation concerning existing things. He thought it was sufficient bliss for a person to have those good things even by way of hope. This is why he says at the end of the psalm, “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that hopes in you.” (On the Making of Man, 22.)
“In this long paragraph, the author invites us to see the faith
of Abraham in several episodes of which the text of the Book of
Genesis says nothing, and he passes over the only episode of
which the text does speak, stating that after an improbable prom-
ise of God, "Abraham believed in the Lord, who reckoned it to
him as righteousness" (Gen 15:6). Saint Paul, however, quotes
this declaration several times (Gal 3:6; Rom 4:3, 9) and bases his
doctrine of justification by faith on it. Our author, for his pan,
does not insist explicitly on faith as adherence to the word of
God, but he stresses first of all the dynamism of obedience engen-
dered by faith: "By faith, Abraham, on being called, obeys by
depaning." Faith stans Abraham on his way, because God com-
mands him to "depan" (Gen 12:1 LXX) from his country. The
author then shows the relation between faith and hope, because
Abraham's move is directed "to a place he was to receive as an
inheritance" (Heb 11:8). The author then shows the paradoxical
situations in which faith places us, a situation of panial obscurity:
Abraham knows he has to depan, but he does not know where he
is going, because God has simply said to him, Go "toward the
country I shall show you" (Gen 12: 1); then a disconcening situa-
tion: living as nomads in the promised land! But that situation
gives rise to desires above eanhly horizons, toward "the city that
has foundations and has God as architect and builder" (Heb
11:10). The idea of the city built by God himself that therefore
provided a perfect relation with God will be taken up and devel-
oped in the central subdivision (11:13-16), which generalizes it” (Cardinal Albert Vanhoye. The Letter to the Hebrews: A New Commentary. Paulist Press 978-0809149285, page 184.)
Collect
O God,
Who made Saint Thomas Aquinas
outstanding in his zeal for holiness
and his study of sacred doctrine,
grant us, we pray,
that we may understand what he taught
and imitate what he accomplished.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Who made Saint Thomas Aquinas
outstanding in his zeal for holiness
and his study of sacred doctrine,
grant us, we pray,
that we may understand what he taught
and imitate what he accomplished.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
