That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus.
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
He is truly risen! Alleluia!
Abram went as the LORD directed him.
Our central theme for this graced Lenten time of reflection and teaching is living sacrificially. We will touch on the fact that sacrifice is covenantal. In our sacrifices we enhance the pre-existing relationship we have with God. We acknowledge our agreement with God’s plan and rule, find joy in that, reinforce our acceptance of it, and tear away at the things that stand in the way of a deeper union with God.
In our First Reading we meet Abram – later to be Abraham. If you follow Abram’s journey with God, we will repeatedly find God meeting with him and calling him to extraordinary acts of faith.
We hear God promising Abram wonderful things – a certain kind of greatness that comes from putting one’s faith in God and God’s plan.
Now several things to keep aware of. Abram was old as was his wife, Sarah. He was called to travel a long distance to an unknown land full of hostile foes with a promise that he would have descendants, something he would eventually doubt.
Later, Abram would be called to face the evils of Sodom and Gomorrah and to even sacrifice his son as God would later fulfill in His Son Jesus.
In the end a covenant was made between God and God. God did not make a contract between Himself and a man, because a man might fail in his promises, fail to keep the contract. Rather, God agreed with Himself in the perfectness of His truth that He would fulfill His promises to Abraham the man and to his descendants which includes each of us.
Abraham was asked to keep faith and so were those Apostles on Mount Tabor. They were given a glimpse of God’s glory and in that encounter given a call to faith by the Father: “This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.”
Jesus then calls them to a faith that like Abram’s would be tested on the night He is arrested and the day He was killed on the Cross: “Rise, and do not be afraid.”
As was Abram and the Apostles, we are all called to a faith that listens, sacrifices, and is unafraid.
