That today you would hear his voice, harden not your hearts

Heb 3:7

Two Pastoral Warnings in the Letter to the Hebrews

While the first of five pastoral warnings in Aquila and Priscilla’s Letter to the Hebrews warns about the danger of neglect (Heb 2:1-4): Therefore, we must attend all the more to what we have heard, so that we may not drift away (Heb 2:1), the second warns us of the danger of unbelief (Heb 3:7-4:13): Take care, brothers, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God (Heb 3:12).

In the first warning, the danger is passive. It uses a metaphor of a boat drifting past a safe harbor, serving as a reminder that spiritual ruin rarely begins with sudden or deliberate defiance. Instead, it is the silent, often unnoticed result of carelessness, apathy, or strained relationships. Consequently, one misses out on the full blessings and confirmation of salvation.

The second warning in Heb 3:7-4:13 cautions about active hardening of the heart against God’s promises. Just as the faithless generation of Israelites died in the desert, the consequence is failure to enter God’s spiritual rest. It is a powerful, urgent warning against spiritual hardness, and an invitation to experience God’s ultimate rest. It serves as a passionate pastoral warning against spiritual apathy. It urges us to learn from the ancient Israelites who forfeited their inheritance due to unbelief. Hebrews points out that the gospel message did not profit the Israelites because it was not united with active faith. The Israelites witnessed God miraculously rescued them from slavery in Egypt and part the Red Sea. Yet, when faced with the challenges of the wilderness and the giants of Canaan, they doubted God’s power.

Hebrews places recurrent emphasis on the word “Today,” underscoring that hearing God’s voice and responding in obedience demand immediate action; to delay is to risk the hardening of one’s heart. To safeguard against this spiritual callousing, believers are urged to exhort and encourage one another daily. Faith, after all, is a communal endeavor, and isolation leaves a believer vulnerable to spiritual drifting. Concluding with the renowned assurance that the Word of God is sharper than any “two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12), the text reveals that God sees past our outward appearances. He pierces through to our deepest, hidden motives, leaving us “naked and open” before his eyes; we can neither feign our faith nor conceal our doubts from him.

Honoring the Legacy of the Faithful Departed

We can avert spiritual hardness and enter God’s ultimate rest by honoring the legacy of the departed members of the community who held fast to their confession, heard God’s voice, and responded in holy obedience. Having willingly lived “naked and exposed” before the Lord, they have now entered into God’s eternal rest.

Heeding Hebrews warnings, our community has established, through the CFC Institute, the Aquila and Priscilla Endowment Fund. As a permanent legacy fund, it will preserve its core capital and draw only upon a portion of its earnings to sustain three cornerstone initiatives: (a) advancing the causes for sainthood of qualified departed members,(b) publishing scholarly and theological knowledge products, and (c) founding a dedicated CFC university.

A Legacy Rooted in the Blood of the Martyrs

This vision anchors itself in a rich spiritual heritage. Writing in 197 A.D., Tertullian famously declared that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Centuries later, St. Augustine echoed this truth in his sermons, likening the blood of the martyrs to seeds sown in faith, observing that “from that seed have sprung the crops of the church.” This sacred economy of prayer is further mirrored in scripture; Rev 5:8 depicts twenty-four elders in the heavenly throne room holding golden bowls filled with the “prayers of the saints,” illustrating how precious these intercessions are to God. Similarly, Rev 8:3-5 portrays an angel offering incense alongside the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne.

The profound impact of lay holiness is vividly demonstrated by modern ecclesial communities. The Focolare Movement, for instance, currently oversees 29 active causes for beatification and canonization through its central postulation office. Among its luminaries is Blessed Chiara Badano, the first Focolare member to be beatified. She embraced the movement at age nine and passed away in 1990 from a painful bone cancer at just nineteen, leaving a legacy of joy that led to her beatification in 2010. Another inspiring model is Venerable Jerzy Ciesielski, a Polish civil engineer, university professor, and married layman who beautifully integrated Focolare spirituality into family life, earning the title of Venerable in 2013.

Sacrifice and Service: Raising Up Qualified Postulators

Within our community, the depth of faith and sacrifice is profound. Couples travel for hours by foot and boat to attend household meetings, teachings, and community activities. Members willingly borrow funds to embark on pastoral missions to Africa or to participate in essential retreats and conferences. Others choose early retirement from lucrative secular careers to dedicate their lives as full-time missionaries, while many couples personally finance their own missions to establish new communities in foreign lands.

To honor and preserve this legacy of faith, we must now develop qualified postulators to advance causes for beatification and canonization—sacred endeavors that span years and require exhaustive documentation.

The postulator bears the critical responsibility of managing canonical and historical evidence, authoring the Positio (the definitive summary of the candidate’s life and virtues), and collaborating with medical experts to investigate alleged miracles. Preparing for this role demands rigorous academic training. Candidates must complete a two-year program at the Vatican School of Higher Formation in the Causes of Saints, established jointly by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints and the Pontifical Lateran University. This curriculum consists of 19 courses covering the theological-juridical foundations of canonized holiness, church history, the law governing the Causes of Saints, and the practical operations of the Dicastery. To earn a diploma, students must write a thesis, pass oral and written examinations each semester, and succeed in a final comprehensive examination.

A Call to Support This Sacred Work

Inevitably, establishing a centralized postulation office staffed by multiple certified postulators will require significant financial resources. Hebrews thus warns against spiritual apathy and urges us to pray “that today you would hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”