Word to the Wise
Wednesday, June 27, 2007 - Twelfth Wednesday in Ordinary Time
[Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 and Matthew 7:15-20]'Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so, " he added, "shall your descendants be." Abram put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.
Today we are given two important events in the life of Abraham. Actually it is two promises from one source, the Lord, who appears to Abraham in a dream. The first promise is that Abraham would have descendants. Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were getting old. He assumed one of his household would carry on after his death. God has other plans and uses the number of the stars as a metaphor! The second promise is a very large chunk of Middle Eastern real estate! Both of these promises are sealed in a covenant ritual that is described in the scripture today. The importance of these promises cannot be underestimated. The country of Israel was founded on the promise of the land and on spiritual descendency from Abraham! We Christians regard ourselves too as spiritual descendants of Abraham. Islam has a similar belief. This profound relationship with a biblical/historical figure underlies a theological as well as political reality that continues to be played out in the news reports from the Middle East every day! The Christian population of the Holy Land has become much reduced because of the conflict there. For many of us Catholics, it is a matter of emulating Abraham's towering faith in God's promise, whatever that promise might seem to be to us personally. For Jews and Moslems, those promises carry a geographic and political as well as religious aspect. They are recent history, so to speak, not an ancient story! People are paying with their lives! The Old Testament is alive and kicking over there! AMEN
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