Journeys of Faith
In the early church, Lent was observed for three weeks and started with the liturgy of our present day third week of Lent. So, all the readings were geared to the individuals who would embrace Christ in Baptism. In those days, baptisms were administered only on Easter Sunday, when the death and resurrection of Christ was commemorated. It made perfect sense, for in baptism we participate in the death and resurrection of Christ and thereby become the children of God our Father. The first two Lenten Sundays were added much later, and the readings were chosen to initiate catechumens to faith and to the baptismal catechesis.
Today’s readings speak of faith as a gradual and progressive journey of our life in God. Abraham is introduced as the father of faith. He was a rich man living a good life in the most civilized part of the world at that time. But, when he was 75 years old, God asked him to leave his cozy life behind and travel to a land that he had never seen. Abraham truly believed in God’s promise. With his journey to a new place, Abraham’s journey of faith began. Today’s first reading gives us the story of the covenant God made to Abraham when he reached the promised land.
In the ancient Middle Eastern world, a covenant was carried out between two equals. A superior person could not make a covenant with the inferior. But God contracted a lasting covenant with Abraham. We see in today’s reading how the covenant was established – animals were cut into half and a passage was created between the two cut parts. God, through the lighted torch, passed through the sacrificed animals. Terms were clear: ‘The fate of the person will be the same as the sacrificed animal if they break the covenant’. God kept his part of the covenant.
Abraham believed in God’s promises. Did he inherit the Promised Land? Not he, nor his son or grandson owned the land. This promise was fulfilled many centuries later when a group of Hebrew slaves came from Egypt and occupied the land. For these settlers, this Promised Land eventually became ‘the land flowing with milk and honey’.
In the Gospel, Jesus takes a long journey with his chosen disciples. Jesus takes them to a mountain to help them believe in him as they will soon face his imminent death and, thereafter, their persecution. The long six-day journey was just for a few minutes of the transfiguration. But those few moments created a lasting image on the minds of witnesses. “We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain” (2 Peter 1: 18). They saw the glory of the resurrection even before it happened.
Our journey of faith ends at the Cross and strengthens at the Resurrection.
–Fr. Ranjan D’Sa OCD