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December 17

Commentary of the day
Pope Francis
Encyclical « Lumen fidei / The Light of Faith», §8-9 (trans. © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

"Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham"

Abraham, our father in faith: Faith opens the way before us and accompanies our steps through time. Hence, if we want to understand what faith is, we need to follow the route it has taken, the path trodden by believers, as witnessed first in the Old Testament. Here a unique place belongs to Abraham, our father in faith. Something disturbing takes place in his life: God speaks to him; he reveals himself as a God who speaks and calls his name. Faith is linked to hearing. Abraham does not see God, but hears his voice. Faith thus takes on a personal aspect. God is not the god of a particular place, or a deity linked to specific sacred time, but the God of a person, “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Ex 3,6), capable of interacting with man and establishing a covenant with him. Faith is our response to a word which engages us personally, to a "Thou" who calls us by name.

The word spoken to Abraham contains both a call and a promise. First, it is a call to leave his own land, a summons to a new life, the beginning of an exodus which points him towards an unforeseen future (Gn 12,1). The sight which faith would give to Abraham would always be linked to the need to take this step forward: faith "sees" to the extent that it journeys, to the extent that it chooses to enter into the horizons opened up by God’s word.

This word also contains a promise: “Your descendants will be great in number, you will be the father of a great nation” (Gn 13:16; 15:5; 22:17). As a response to a word which preceded it, Abraham’s faith would always be an act of remembrance... But, as the memory of a promise, it becomes capable of opening up the future, shedding light on the path to be taken... It is thus closely bound up with hope.