COULD ANYONE ACCUSE THOSE THAT GOD HAS CHOSEN?

II SUNDAY OF LENT - Genesis 22:1-2,9-13,15-18

There are stories of the past that leave us puzzled, raising questions that are difficult to answer. However, they are very profound, full of meaning and implications. They express graphically fundamental questions and attitudes, which help us to make sense of life. To grasp the deep meaning of these stories, we must approach them from different angles.

One of these stories is the sacrifice of Isaac, the son of the promise. He was the most precious gift that Abraham received from God. This child was the living proof of God’s friendship with Abraham and was the guarantee of a future and a blessing to the nations. Isaac became his father’s delight, bring joy and peace in his old age. Then, how could God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son? What does it mean about God? Is he a God thirsty for blood? Can he be so cruel as to demand such an insane act? And what does the story mean about the relationship between father and son? Why was Abraham willing to kill his son? Should we obey any kind of commandment, even if it implies committing a crime?

In many cultures of the past, even on different continents, there were human sacrifices. Slaves, prisoners of war and even children from de family could be sacrificed to the gods. For instance, among the Bemba (and other groups), the chief should not be buried alone, He had to be accompanied by "ipaki". In the Ancient Middle East, human sacrifices were common and, in difficult times, parents would sacrifice their children (2 Kg 17:31). Having grown up in that culture, Abraham would not find the demand from God to sacrifice his son to be completely out of place. However, his faith and his friendship with God were pushed to the limit. The reader is warned that God was putting Abraham to the test, which would prove to be a very extreme one. God had made a promise to Abraham and sealed it with a covenant. Was God breaking his covenant and being unfaithful to his promise? Or has He other ways known to himself alone?

Like Abraham, all of us pass through difficult times and are put to the test. And the most difficult trial are the ones that touch us on what is dearest to us. The people of Israel wandered in the desert, god tired and lost hope, ending up blaming God. They suspected God’s intentions and decided to turn their backs on him. When they face many hardships in the desert, they should have looked to Abraham and learn from his attitude of total obedience, made possible his complete trust in God’s wisdom, power and love.

Like Abraham, we must learn that only God is supreme and that his lordship over everything must be recognised. Nothing belongs to us and we must give it back to whom it belongs. Abraham needed to learn that his son Isaac did not belong to him and should be ready to let him go. Jesus’ mother had to pass through a similar experience and Jesus reminded her of that when in the temple he told her: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” (Lk 2:49). And Jesus makes a similar demand from his disciples: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Mt 10:37).

The law given by God to Moses forbade human sacrifices, considering them an abomination: “You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way” (Dt 12:31). And so God did not allow Abraham to sacrifice his son and gave him a substitute to offer as a sacrifice (Gn 22:13).

Paul read the story of the sacrifice of Isaac as a prophecy of the sacrifice of Jesus. Like Abraham, God was ready to give up his Son and offer him in sacrifice. As Isaac carried willingly the fire for the sacrifice, Jesus carried the cross to the calvary. According to Paul, Jesus’ sacrifice is proof of God’s love for us. “God did not spare his own Son but gave him up to benefit us all” (Ro 8:32). We must not look at God as being a sadistic God, who can only be satisfied with the shedding of blood. The Father accepted to give up his Son when the Son offered himself to come in human flesh and subject himself to the human condition, which would lead him to be rejected and killed on the cross. We see God’s love revealed in Jesus’ sacrifice, and his sacrifice becomes a guarantee that God “will not refuse anything he can give” for us to reach salvation.

“Could anyone accuse those that God has chosen? When God acquits, could anyone condemn? Could Christ Jesus? No! He not only died for us – he rose from the dead, and there at God’s right hand he stands and pleads for us.” (Ro 8:33-34)

REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS

I SUNDAY OF LENT - Mark 1:12-15

In his gospel, Mark presents no more than a summary of the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry. If we read the gospel in a very light manner, we will just go through without noticing the real importance of what took place.

Immediately after his baptism, impelled by the Spirit, Jesus went to the wilderness, where he remained for forty days, as the people of Israel had been there for forty years. The desert brings to mind the experience of the people of God, after leaving the land of slavery and while they walked towards the land of promise, that’s the land of freedom. It was a long, hard and very trying journey, during which God took care of his people, guiding, protecting and defending them. He gave them food to eat and water to drink and he asserted them over their enemies. In the desert, they were established as a nation provided with a guiding law, organised and guided by their leaders. However, faced with the hardships of the journey, the people were always grumbling to the point of looking for other leaders who would take them back to Egypt, the land of slavery. They would not trust God and were convinced that He had brought them out of Egypt to destroy them. In the desert, going through big trials, the people proved to be unfaithful. Put to the test, they failed.

In the desert, as the Messiah, Jesus went through the experience of the people of Israel. Reflecting on his life and preparing for his mission, “he was tempted by Satan”. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he was able to screen the different proposals presented and make the right choice, the only one that would keep him faithful to the Father who sent him. Tempted, Jesus remained faithful. Like the people of Israel he had to make choices, but, unlike them, he kept his trust in the Father and remained faithful no matter what. Jesus overcame the temptation, choosing the only way which may restore the harmony intended by God at the beginning. In the desert, being tempted by the Devil, Jesus began to establish a new order, in which the whole universe is in harmony: “He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.”

After John’s arrest, Jesus went back to Galilee and started preaching the Good News. The message is very simple and clear. There is a piece of news: “the kingdom of God is close at hand” and two straightforward demands; “Repent, and believe”. For us to be part of the Kingdom of God, we must repent and believe. Repentance implies the recognition of our sinfulness, the confession of our sins and the decision to convert. We are called back to God. We are called to believe and start our journey of faith, putting all our trust in the Lord.

At the beginning of Lent, we are called to make our experience of the desert, which prepares us for true repentance to be the followers of Jesus, guided by faith and recognising God’s love and mercy.

JESUS IS OUR MODEL

VI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Leviticus 13:1-2,44-46

It is easy to judge and condemn the past. And this is a prevalent attitude nowadays. We are faced with the “cancel culture”, in which everything and everybody not in accordance with the politically correct has to be cancelled. The cancel culture imposes ignoring, despising and banishing anybody that questions the new dogmas which reign in the social and political arena. This may include to take out statues of important figures of the past, to change names of streets and public buildings or even to shame and threaten anybody into submission. And the tech giants have given themselves the power to police the world and to banish whatever doesn’t please them or goes against their ideas.

We may be appaled with the first reading, hearing the harsh treatment inflicted on all those who were suspect of having leprosy. To protect the community from this contagious disease, they were excluded, thus becoming outcasts. This measure of self-protection is presented with religious motives since everything in all aspects of life had a religious dimension. Considered impure, the leper was isolated and separated for fear of making the whole community unclean, rendering it incapable of giving worthy worship to God. We may question the religious motives and consider them to be unfounded. Jesus ignored those rules of uncleanness and touched the leper with love and compassion, setting new ideals for people to pursue.

However, during this time of the covid pandemic, we have seen whole nations being put under lock-down to control the rate of infection. Most of us have experienced the big impact which the lock-down have in all spheres of life. In old times, the leper was excluded as if he was already dead. Now, under lock-down, the whole population is forced to live a lonely life, each one in his own house, always keeping a social distance from the others. Any kind of highly infectious disease forces us to recognise our fragility and our mortality and we are faced with our fears and uncertainties. In this situation, we may ask where is God and what kind of relationship we have with him. It seems that, on the whole, our society forgot Him and lost all reference to him.

In the second reading, St. Paul gives two basic rules: a) “whatever you do at all, do it for the glory of God”; b) “Never do anything offensive to anyone”, but “try to be helpful to everyone at all times”. Everything for the glory of God and the benefit of others. We will never go wrong if we try to live by these two rules. And as a model, we must look to Jesus Christ. In everything, we must try to imitate him, following his way of life.

WITH JOB WE RECOGNISE OUR FRAGILITY AND MORTALITY

V SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME -  Job 7:1-4,6-7

While in Lubengele Parish, in Chililabombwe, Zambia, I used to visit the sick in Konkola Mine Hospital every Friday. It happened one day to find a lady who had come from a different town. She was with cancer in the terminal phase. She was catholic and she had the Bible by her side. Before giving her the holy communion as the food for the journey, I asked her if I could read a passage from the Scriptures. Receiving an affirmative response, I asked again from which book she would like me to read. And she said: From the book of Job. In her dire situation, experiencing pain and making deep questions about suffering and the meaning of it in life, she could find in Job a role model to put before God her questions.

The book of Job is an extraordinary book that leaves us puzzled by its daring in dealing with the problem of suffering and death. Job is not afraid to address God and to ask difficult questions, the questions which humanity has always asked. Why is there suffering and death? Why does the upright suffer while the crooked and the oppressor enjoy life?

It was a traditional belief that the righteous are blessed by God and God protects them and fills them with honour and wealth. On the other side, the ungodly are punished by God and that punishment happens here on earth. The book of Job is written against this misconception. It is easy to discover as Job did, that wealth, power and honour are not signs of God’s blessings. Many times, they go together with injustice, exploitation and oppression. If we look around at the realities of life, we discover that many good people go through all kinds of suffering. It happened so with Jesus. We may even be led to think that it is a waste of time to be committed to God’s ways because he seems to abandon us and to ignore our plight. Job went through that experience, feeling the pain of anguish and despair, which led him to face God and ask: Why?

There are times in life when we struggle with ourselves and with God in an attempt to make sense of our lives. Before suffering, we cannot accuse the sufferer of a lack of faith. God allowed Job to raise questions, even when they seemed to show revolt. God knows that sometimes pain is so acute that one may enter into delirium. The important is that Job turned to God and felt confident enough to approach Him and ask.

Looking at human life, Job became aware of its fragility and vulnerability. Our “life is but a breath” and “swifter than a weaver’s shuttle my days have passed, and vanished, leaving no hope behind.” Death is part of life. We are mortal and all those who were born will go through the gate of death into the unknown.  Those who believe in Jesus Christ approach that gate with the hope that on the other side a loving Father is waiting to embrace us. United with Jesus in death, we will be with him as well in the resurrection.

The pandemic we are going through leads us to the same experience of Job. Like him, we approach God with a heavy heart and with difficult questions. And God will listen to our cry and have compassion on our bleeding hearts.