12th Week, Ordinary Time, Monday, June 21
Genesis
12:1-9 / Matthew 7:1-5
God calls Abraham; "Go forth to a new land!"
Fr. John Catoir, director of the Christophers, describes his call to the ministry in his book That Your Joy May Be Full. He says that as a young man he was attracted to the priesthood, but held back.
He was afraid of the "alligators in the swamp," as he put it. Seven years later, after college and military service, Catoir had the courage to face the "alligators." He writes: "I never regretted that decision. Once I decided to put my hand in His, I knew I was safe. I knew I had something more dependable than human assurances."***
What keeps
us from putting our hand in the hand of Jesus and letting him direct our lives
more closely? "Your servant shall be wherever my lord the king may be,
whether for death or for life." 2 Samuel 15:21
***
A new
part of Genesis starts with this reading.
God wanting to save mankind - starts with one man, one family, one tribe, one
nation.
1.
And the Lord
Acts: Front now on it is God who
acts, that is new, Without God's doing, there would be no "numerous
people"; no "descendants of Abram"; no "lands"
conquered from kings that were much stronger military powers; no "famous
name" for Abram, history records no wandering nomad. God acts.
2.
God Spoke: Throughout history God will speak until he finally
speaks through his son [Hebrews 1, 1-21.
3.
To Abram: God could have called anybody else - for instance
Abram's contemporary Hammurabi: God's friendship; no man can earn. Here grace
begins.
4.
Go forth: Leave your country, your tribe, your family, all that
you love and think to be your security, but which really is your danger, with
its idolatry and immorality.
5.
Into the
land which I will show you: Where the
circles of the three continents intersect: Asia, Europe, Africa. Already the
universality of God's love is indicated.
6.
I bless
you and in you all the tribes of the world: Against the judgement on Adam and Eve, the flood, and the dispersal of
Babylon, there begins now the history of salvation.
****
A vague
promise was all that Abraham had to go by when he followed the call of an
unknown God:
1.
a land to be
possessed not by himself but by his descendants,
2.
a numerous people
to be born from him though he was seventy-five,
3.
and his name that
would be a blessing among the nations – but long after his death.
4.
For nothing more
concrete, he had to leave his highly civilized country, his relatives, his
father’s house, his possessions.
5.
He had literally
by faith alone, to jump with both feet into an uncertain future.
6.
He accepted to be
completely uprooted.
7.
Can our faith
compare to his? Do we accept to be uprooted? Do we live in hope amidst
uncertainty?
***
Jesus does
not tell us that we should never judge. Educators have to judge their pupils;
employers must judge who is able to do a better job. A newspaper without
judgement would be colourless and unreadable. Jesus gives us three rules:
Critical judgement must start with yourself. Who has no right judgement about
himself, cannot judge others. The measure and the meter must be the same.
Criticism must be guided by love. It is like the most delicate eye operation.
The doctor uses anaesthesia before he begins the surgery. There is a time, and
mode which removes the pain. The sensitive educator and the efficient employer know
how their criticism causes the least hurt, but is appreciated. All operations need
also post-operative care and allow wounds time to heal. Third rule: to judge
wisely is to remember that the final judge is God. Looking up to our judge
should make us just and gentle. We need a gentle and just judge.
***
For people
who walk side-by-side with the Lord, there is no room for superiority complexes
that look down on the people around us to condemn them. We have all the same
calling in Christ. Do we not often judge and condemn in others that which,
consciously or unconsciously, we condemn in ourselves? At times, we even
secretly rejoice that our brother or sister suffers from the same shortcoming
to a greater extent than we do. If we apply the law to others, God will measure
us with the same severity of the law. Let us look into ourselves and remove the
beam from our own eyes before we discover the splinter in the eyes of others.
***
Prayer
Lord our
God, we are people who have not yet seen what you have prepared for us, yet,
who have to take you on your word and to walk forward in faith and hope. Give
us faith Lord, a deep faith that asks for no other certainty than that you know
where you lead us and that all is well and secure because you are our God and
Father, who loves us, for ever and ever. Amen
