Lumen Fidei - page 12

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extent that it journeys, to the extent that it choos-
es 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 (cf. Gen 13:16; 15:5;
22:17). As a response to a word which preceded
it, Abraham’s faith would always be an act of re-
membrance. Yet this remembrance is not fixed
on past events but, as the memory of a prom-
ise, it becomes capable of opening up the future,
shedding light on the path to be taken. We see
how faith, as remembrance of the future, memoria
futuri, is thus closely bound up with hope.
10. Abraham is asked to entrust himself to this
word. Faith understands that something so ap-
parently ephemeral and fleeting as a word, when
spoken by the God who is fidelity, becomes ab-
solutely certain and unshakable, guaranteeing
the continuity of our journey through histo-
ry. Faith accepts this word as a solid rock upon
which we can build, a straight highway on which
we can travel. In the Bible, faith is expressed
by the Hebrew word ’emûnāh, derived from the
verb ’amān whose root means “to uphold”. The
term ’emûnāh can signify both God’s fidelity and
man’s faith. The man of faith gains strength by
putting himself in the hands of the God who is
faithful. Playing on this double meaning of the
word — also found in the corresponding terms
in Greek (pistós) and Latin (fidelis) — Saint Cyril
of Jerusalem praised the dignity of the Christian