Sunday 2 of Lent (A): Abram’s migration
Our first reading from Genesis begins: “The Lord said to Abram.” These few words, “the Lord
said”, are repeated hundreds of times in the Old Testament. The Old finds fulfillment in the New Testament when God
speaks definitively through his living Word, Jesus Christ. God always takes the initiative in speaking to us. Our task is
to listen, to trust and to do what he says. Like Abram, all human beings are by nature called to be listeners, trusters and
doers of God’s Word.
The first thing the Lord asks of Abram is to leave his home and move to another one which the Lord himself
would show him. Leaving home is one of the most important and most difficult experiences of life. Moving house or job, and
bereavement, are said to be the two most stressful things we experience. Indeed, moving house is itself like a death and rebirth.
For most young people, if they do not leave home, they will not mature. When they get married, most people must leave to form
a new home and to have the space to establish themselves in independence and freedom. Then there are entire families which
leave one house to move to another for a whole host of reasons. Some must even go to another country to escape persecution
or violence of some kind.
Abram moved to a new land in obedience to God because the land in which he lived, called Haran,
had religious customs of idolatry. The Lord wanted Abram to be free from their corrupting influence so as to be open to the
one, true God. He wanted Abram to go far away, to start afresh in a promised land in which Yahweh would be Abram’s God,
his only God. The promise of a new life, new opportunities and even a new identity is precisely what God wanted for Abram
and for all of his descendants. And the Lord makes him a huge promise to entice him to leave Haran. God offers Abram a new destiny: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will
bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who
curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” That’s some promise! Not only will Abram
be a great man who lives in a hitherto unknown intimacy with God, but he will be the greatest man on the face of the earth.
God promises so much and asks so little, and Abram listens and obeys: “Abram went as the Lord directed him.”
In our lives we can get very comfortable and cozy where we are. I am not referring so much to the street on
which we live, as to where we find ourselves spiritually. We get hung up on our comfort zones, sometimes to the point that
we would not know who we were if those comforts were taken away from us. We get comfortable with who we think we are; or else, if uncomfortable with who we actually are, we get more uncomfortable still at the thought
of having to change, to move out or away from how we now live. This is aided and abetted by sin within us, by our own private
little idolatries, and by the society and culture around us which, in great part, addict us to comfort. They offer us all
kinds of palliatives to help dull our desire and need to move out of ourselves. Thus, big cars take us big distances at big
speeds, while inside we remain stuck in a hole. The promise of an eternally good physique and physical health distracts us
from the promises of God in the resurrection of the body and eternal life.
To be sure, modern living both offers many good opportunities and is very challenging. But when easy idols
all but ban the true God from even being thought about, we find ourselves in a terrible dilemma. Whoever lives as society
today would want eventually feels an inner emptiness, yet cannot seem to get out of the whirlwind of busy-ness and consumerism.
The gospel of materialism does not preach the Cross or offer the promises of an after life: it delivers goods here and now
which are, in many respects, comparable with the miracles of Jesus. It considers the question of an afterlife irrelevant.
The immediate and needy side of us easily believes the precepts of such a gospel: get what you want and do what you like!
The Gospel of Christ promises eternal happiness, but only after death, a death which must be reached and lived by following
here and now the way of the Cross. The precepts of this Gospel may sound wonderful but are repugnant to our egoism: love your
enemies, pray for those who hate you.
Still, there is a deeper joy which comes from living the Gospel of Jesus which the gospel of materialism can
never know. I suspect that, if honest, even the most hardened materialist would both envy and long for that joy. But it cannot
be known unless we listen to the voice of Christ and, like Abram, leave far behind the land of idols which would suffocate
trusting obedience to the living God.
Lent is the joyful season of grace given to us to take a long and hard look at where we are in our spiritual
lives and, through listening to Christ, to move on from all that imprisons us in our comfort zones. All of you are here because
you seek God and seek the blessings promised to Abram; said another way, you seek the transfiguration of your very selves
by the power of the Spirit of Jesus. I urge you to learn more and more how to listen with the ears of your souls to what the
Holy Spirit is saying to you at this time. To listen in this way, you need to turn down the volume of the voices which drown
out God’s voice. Rediscover silence, both external and internal. It’s relatively easy to stop the external noise;
it’s the internal racket which poses the challenge. Your needs, urges and instincts will calm down if you first calm
your conscience by examining it frequently and listening to what it tells you about your moral life, both good and bad. Ask
God to help you listen and understand yourself, to bring peace to your memory and imagination.
There is no surer way to grow in inner silence and peace than through the regular confession of your sins
and the reception of sacramental absolution. Absolution destroys the chaos of your sins by the redemptive power of Christ’s
Cross. Absolution replaces the din of sin with the eloquent silence of God. Prayer, good deeds and the gradual discovery of
the great spiritual potential within you will, like a magnet, draw you away from the pagan lands of self-concern into the
promised land where God will transform your very name into a blessing.
Listen to and long for Christ and you will be imperceptibly transfigured into the “well-beloved”
sons and daughters of God. That destiny is Abram’s, and our, true home.
Msgr. Peter Magee
Sunday, February 20th, 2005: St. Andrew
Apostle, Silver
Spring,
11.30 am
