A faith commitment is a way of life

December 12, 2004 -- Third Sunday of Advent

By Fr. Richard Ver Bust

	Fr. Richard Ver Bust

As we move through Advent, our liturgy offers us ideas to contemplate. These center not only on the trials and tribulations of this life but also the hope and expectations that we have because of our faith in Christ.

We, therefore, look back in salvation history to the time before Christ in which people confidently hoped that God would continue to care for them.

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We look to the time of Christ and how he offered hope to the marginalized of the society. We look to what Luke called the time of the Spirit and the church to see how the first Christians handled their new way of life and lived in confident assurance of the Lord's saving grace.

Our second reading from the Epistle of James faces such concerns. The epistle has a series of exhortations that were written for those who lived in trial and suffering.

The author wants people to realize that a faith commitment is not just the acceptance of a series of truths but a way of life. Faith must be lived. One could say in modern terms that James believes that faith must be intrinsic or fully incorporated into one's life.

James asked those who have faith to live with joy and endurance. One could do this by realizing that faith in Christ is liberating and saving.

Our passage opens with a call to be patient. That is the theme of the whole section from which the passage is drawn.

Even though one suffers from injustices and the trials of daily life, James believes that one can have an attitude of patient endurance through belief in Jesus Christ.

The author points to the coming of the Lord as a time of reward and relief. James then uses an example from the common life of a farmer. Because farmers in Palestine and Syria, where he lived, depend upon rain in specific seasons such as winter and spring and then face a dry period, the farmer has to be patient and live in the expectation that the rains will really come. This earthy example is then applied to one's faith life.

The return of the Lord within the hearers' lifetime was a common belief that Paul and others had expressed. The delay in that second coming had begun to sink in to the mindset of the community. Why is not answered in this letter but what James offers is that Christians, like the farmer, must be patient.

James taught that one could have hope even while living in pain. This hope gives strength when facing trials.

Finally the author advises that this hope must be realized in the relationships that one has in the community of faith. He encourages all to avoid the grumbling and complaining that impatience often brings.

He asks them to accept the model of the prophets who could only project and not experience the events they expected. The prophets show us how we should live and how our hope may help us be patient.

(The late Fr. Ver Bust directed the master's program in theology at St. Norbert College, De Pere.)