Tobit 1:3; 2:1-8 / Mark 12:1-12
Let's say that someone comes up to us and ask us to state our firm beliefs in just one statement.
So what will be that faith statement be? Will we be able to say it with conviction or will we need some time to think about it and formulate it?
Yet, for whatever faith statement we make, are we also prepared to have it put to the test in order to see if we are convicted about it?
In the 1st reading, Tobit made his faith statement: I, Tobit, have walked the paths of truth and in good works all the days of my life. I have given much in alms to my brothers and fellow countrymen, exiled like me in Nineveh in the country of Assyria.
It was a faith statement that was not made when life was good and peaceful and things are going on smoothly.
In fact, Tobit and his family were in exile in Assyria. And that statement was further put to the test when his son Tobias informed him that a man was murdered in the market place and his body was left there.
Tobit undertook to bury the body even though that would expose him to danger. Yet Tobit put his life on the line together with his faith. He walked the talk.
Similarly in the gospel, Jesus didn't tell parables just to entertain His listeners. In fact, the chief priests, scribes and elders realised that the parable Jesus told was aimed at them and they would have liked to arrest Him.
Hence faith and life goes together and they are like the two sides of a coin.
Well, no one might ask us to state our beliefs, but may our lives be a statement of our faith.