We are so used to considering faith primarily as that by which we believe what we cannot yet see or touch. As such, faith relates to something intangible and out of our grasp. However, the Letter to the Hebrews suggests that this perception needs to be qualified. Faith is the realization of what is hoped for, and evidence of things not seen. In English realization can be used in two senses: One is that of coming to awareness of, as in “I came to the realization that I was lost.” But realization is also used in the sense of achieving or completing a process, as in “she finally achieved the realization of her dreams.” It is in this latter sense, that faith as the realization of what is hoped for, gives us even now what we hope for—albeit in still incomplete form. Thus, Pope Benedict insists that faith is not merely a personal reaching out towards things to come that are still totally absent: it gives us something. It gives us even now something of the reality we are waiting for. Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a “not yet”. Perhaps this is what Jesus was referring to in yesterday’s gospel when he stated that there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the Kingdom of God has come in power—the Kingdom come, that is, in their hearts through the fullness of faith. This is echoed by Saint Catherine’s dictum: All the way to heaven is heaven. May the profound faith of Mary who was among those who saw the Kingdom come in power within herself, obtain for us the grace of a similar faith and trust, so that we too may experience, even now, that joy and peace that are the fruits of the Kingdom come in power.