Romans 4:13, 16-18 / Luke 12:9-12
The Chinese (as well as other races) have this tradition of having a family name, or what is called a surname.
By the surname, one would be identified with a family or with a clan, even though in the present times, two persons having the same surname would not necessarily have any family connection whatsoever.
The surname is not just some kind of identification with a family or clan or group of people.
It is also an indication of the blood ties between the members of that family or clan or group.
And from there the genealogy or the ancestry of the members can be traced.
The 1st reading recalled the promise made by God to Abraham and his descendants.
God promised Abraham that his descendants will be as many as the stars in heaven.
When we refer to the genealogy list in the gospel of Matthew, we see the descendants of Abraham going right down to Jesus, and from there the inheritance of the descendants of Abraham was expressed as the Church and in Christians.
So Abraham is our father in faith and we are his descendants. We carry the name of Christian and we are united in faith in that name and bear witness to the faith that Abraham had in God.
As Jesus said in the gospel, when we bear witness for God, we also bear witness to our faith and to the Church that we belong to.
On the other hand, when we counter-witness to God, we also counter-witness to our faith and to the Church.
May the Holy Spirit always help us bear witness to God in truth and in love so that we can worthily be called descendants of Abraham and receive our eternal inheritance.