12th Week, Wednesday, June 28
Genesis
15:1-12, 17-18 / Matthew 7:15-20
God covenants with Abraham; A flaming torch passed by.
Unlike modern nations and peoples, ancients rarely signed treaties or contracts. Rather, they solemnized important agreements by a symbolic covenant rite. The two parties split an animal in half. Laying the two sides opposite each other, they walked between them. The parties passing between the cut-up animal signified by this rite that they would rather die a death as violent as did the animal than break their agreement. (Jeremiah 34:18-19). The covenant between God and Abraham is expressed in similar terms in today's reading.
***
The tendency
to doubt God is in all of us. But doubt can lead us to two different
situations. Either we deepen our faith in God or we despair and lose faith
altogether. In our doubt, we have this tendency to look inwards of ourselves,
and the questions asked are centred on ourselves. Much like the questions that
Abram asked: What do you intend to give me? I am childless and You have given
me no descendants!
But it is
interesting that God took Abram "outside" to look up at heaven and
count the stars. But the "outside" is not so much in a physical
aspect but rather from a spiritual perspective. God led Abram to come out of
his introspective and myopic attitude and to see further and believe
deeper. The attitude of individualism leads us to ask questions from within,
questions that are centered on the self.
Hence the
"I" becomes predominant, with the emphasis on the "right of
choice" and the "power of freedom". Yet these do not provide
answers to the questions of life. May we let God take us "outside"
and to look up at the heavens and to count the stars. It is enough to realise that we are in God's hands and it is in His hands we
must remain in faith.
***
How faithful
are we to our covenants, like marriage? How faithful are we to our word when we
give it in a promise to someone? "Wherever you go I will go, wherever you live
I will live, your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Wherever you
die I will die, and there be buried." Ruth
***
The
certainty of faith is always a search for a fuller reality, which we do not yet
possess. We have to learn to live with partial visions and to place ourselves
trustingly into the hands of the God of the covenant, like Abraham.
***
Saint Irenaeus
Irenaeus linked the Church at the time of the twelve
apostles and the Church of the second century. He wrote and taught the faith
handed on by the apostles and preserved it when it was attacked. His chief
concern was unity among the churches. Irenaeus was born about 130 in Smyrna, a
port town in western Turkey.
He traveled to Lyons, France, where he was ordained a
priest. Eventually, he became its bishop. Irenaeus faced a strong battle
against Gnosticism. This heresy claimed that eternal life could be gained only
by receiving special knowledge about God, knowledge available to a chosen few.
Irenaeus taught that, according to Scripture, God wished all people to be saved
and to know the truth. The name Irenaeus means “peace,” and this saint was true
to his name.
At one time, a group of Christians in Irenaeus’s homeland did not want to celebrate Easter at the time the Church in Rome had decided. Irenaeus explained to Pope Victor I that this was not a matter of faith. The date for celebrating Easter was an old tradition for these people. His pleading helped the pope decide in their favor. Irenaeus was an important writer and a strong witness to the teaching of the Church as it came from Peter and the other apostles. Perhaps Irenaeus was martyred; we know only that he died in about 200.
***
When Jesus
said: "Beware of false prophets", he showed a remarkable trust in the
discretion of the people. He attacked the priests, scribes and Pharisees of his
day. When the priests spoke of God's glory in sacrifices and the liturgy, they
thought of their own purse. The Pharisees wanted to have their share of glory,
the reflection of God's glory on themselves. The scribes rejoiced in the burden
their addition to the law imposed on the people. This also happens today. Today
they speak of the option for the poor, but exclude the option of the poor for
charity. They speak of justice when they mean violent struggle. They pull down
the Pope, but do not suffer their own infallibility to be questioned. They
think it of greater value to offer God occasionally a prayer or meditation,
instead of a regular spiritual life. It is better, they think, to give God
occasionally an apple than to hand over the whole apple tree. There is too much
of a wooden structure in the tree. Today Jesus might reverse the picture and ask lambs not to
clothe themselves in wolf pelts. It seems to be more modern to be a wolf. A
book or a sermon with a little heresy thrown in, is so much more interesting
and catchier, than boring orthodoxy.
***
Christ is
our real tree of life. If we pluck the fruits of his message and life, we too
can become trees of life that produce good fruits. It is not enough for us to
take pride in being the People of God and in boasting that we are disciples of
Christ. We must also effectively follow him and lead the life of people of the
covenant.
***
Prayer
Lord our
God, the present renewal in the Church and the changes in the world have upset
many of our certainties, and at times we don’t know where we stand. Give us a
great faith and a deep trust, and the wisdom of your Spirit. Help us to retain
our critical sense, that we may not run after false prophets and yet remain
open to all true renewal that brings us closer to you and helps us to bear good
fruit through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
