The New Criteria

The book of Hebrews has some unforgettable sections.  It is so different from the other books which grace the pages of the New Testament.  One of those powerful sections is the eleventh chapter which  seems like a roll call of the faithful saints.  Beginning with Abel and moving to the prophets, the saints of God are remembered for their faith.  The first verse of the chapter serves as a prelude to this roll call as it says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." 

 

Here is a word which not only defines the essence of faith, but drives it home like a hammer drives a nail home into the wood.   An active faith always carries us into the realm of things which cannot be touched, proven, or seen.  Surely, when we see faith being expressed in visible ways, it is also true "...that what is seen was made from things that are not visible."  (Hebrews 11:3)  The Word tells us of the faith of the faithful and through its words we seem to catch a glimpse of what faith is all about, but it always eludes a  tidy definition because is has to do with "things hoped for...things not seen." 

 

Those who names are called in this chapter of Hebrews are those who lived in this world with a mindfulness of what was always invisible and just beyond their reach; yet, in their constant movement toward it, they modeled for the rest of us what it means to live in a world where the visible and the invisible are always intermingling.  The sacred is never separated from the secular, what is always seems to be shadowed with what is coming, and the life being lived and what can be known is always less than the unknowable shrouded in mystery.  Not knowing and not having all the answers does not separate us from the list of the faithful, but instead seems more like the criteria which must be embraced to become a member.