anchored in Jesus 2 - 2nd week tuesday 2015

The letter to the Hebrews acknowledges that even for a Christian it is easy to fall into despair and to give up on our resolutions and the good work we have begun.  Like a ship battered by the waves we need to be anchored firmly so that we will remain stable.  Without this anchor we will be easily tossed to and fro, we can be crashed into the rocks and we may lose our way in the vast ocean.  And what is this anchor?  It is called hope.  In fact the virtue of hope is symbolized by an anchor.

The letter to the Hebrews proposes to us the lesson of Abraham.  God made an oath to Abraham that he would make him the father of descendants who would be so vast they would number as the sands on the shore, and he will settle in the land which God will show him.  For this reason Abraham traveled from Ur almost blindly, not knowing where God would lead him.  And yet he followed, he walked.  He reached old age and Sarah his wife reached old age without a son.  And yet both of them held on to the promise made until at last Isaac came.  Then one day the would-be-father of so many nations whose descendants will outnumber the sands on the shore was told to sacrifice his one and only son Isaac in Mt. Moriah.  Again Abraham did as he was told anchored only on that oath made by God that he will become the father of many nations and so many descendants.  This was Abraham’s hope.  His anchor.  And for thousands of years that too would be Israel’s hope.  They went into Diaspora, they were enslaved for hundreds of years, they were ruled by bad kings, they were threatened by enemies whose might exceeded theirs, they were punished many times, they even sinned against God tremendously, and still they held on to the promise.  They anchored themselves in God’s promise to Abraham.  Their anchor was that promise

Now we are back to reality after almost a week of Pope Francis euphoria.  Some of us were there, most of us were glued to our television sets.  Many of us were brought to tears by his actions and his message.  But the Pope is now gone back to his home in the Vatican.  Now we will all go back to our usual routine.  The spirit, the enthusiasm, the fervor will wane in time.  But the question is, where is your anchor?  Where does our faith in God rest?  What, where and to whom do you base your hope so that whatever comes, whatever winds of change shall sweep, you can still hold on firmly to what you have set your sight on?  The euphoria that is Pope Francis will fade away, the emotions he ignited in us.  But what will happen to his message once the euphoria is gone?  What will happen to compassion and mercy, to going to the peripheries of society, now that the papal visit is over and the euphoria has subsided?  It all boils down to where are we anchored?  This is our anchor - our anchor is the Eucharist, our anchor is God’s word, our anchor is Jesus.  Diri kita nagapanguyaput.