Friday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, January 15, 2021

Hebrews 4:1-5, 11

Let us be on our guard while the promise of entering into his rest remains, that none of you seem to have failed. For in fact we have received the Good News just as our ancestors did. But the word that they heard did not profit them, for they were not united in faith with those who listened. For we who believed enter into that rest, just as he has said: As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter into my rest,” and yet his works were accomplished at the foundation of the world. For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this manner, And God rested on the seventh day from all his works; and again, in the previously mentioned place, They shall not enter into my rest. Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience.

“Let us be on our guard while the promise of entering into his rest remains, that none of you seem to have failed.”  The First Reading for today’s Mass is a continuation of the Letter to the Hebrews.  Paul is urging his hearers, Jewish Christians, to persevere in their faith.  He shows that the entering of the Promised Land by their ancestors is a sign fulfilled in the entrance of the faithful into heaven.  Here, Paul speaks of the promise for the Christian faithful to enter into the Lord’s “rest”, not merely a rest from the long journey from Egypt as in the case of their ancestors, but rest with God.  As John the Apostle writes: “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying to me: Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their works follow them” (Revelation 14, 13).  This is the true meaning of the Lord’s words: “Come to me all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.”  “While the promise of entering into his rest remains.” Paul reminds his people that the promise will cease at some point in the future.  It is necessary to take advantage of it while they have it.  Those who do not are said “to fail”.  They fail to grasp the brevity of their lives on earth and the eternity of heaven and hell.  They fail to obey the Lord’s commandments, to maintain their faith in him, and to preach about him to others.  To do these things is in fact to enter into the “rest” of the Lord here on earth because this is what we humans were created for.  In taking up this work, we stop “kicking against the goad” (cf. Acts 24, 14) — engaging in work that is counterproductive.

“For in fact we have received the Good News just as our ancestors did.”  The Good News of the land promised to Abraham and his descendants is a sign of the Good News preached by Jesus Christ.  “But the word that they heard did not profit them, for they were not united in faith with those who listened.”  The Hebrews going into the Promised Land did not “profit” eternally from “the word that they heard” — the sign of the promise made to them — because they did not receive the grace to be joined to the Son of God and thence to each other, nor to us who have “listened” to the Lord Jesus.  This would only come with with the Death of the Lord, when he “preached to those spirits that were in prison” (1 Peter 3, 19).  “For we who believed enter into that rest.”  That is, we enter it now through hope, and we will later enter it fully.  “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter into my rest.’ ”  Just as the wicked do not enter into God’s rest, so the faithful do enter it.  And this is the action of God: he “swears” it.  “His works were accomplished at the foundation of the world.”  Here Paul relates the “rest” of the Promised Land and of heaven to the original “rest” of God after the work of creation.   The Lord set forth the work of his creation and rest as a pattern for those who believe in him: first, there is the work of “creating” other Christians, and finally entering into rest — and this rest, the eternal Sabbath — is blessed by God.  “Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience.”  That is, the example of disobedience of those who left Egypt, but who did not live to enter the Promised Land.