Thoughts from the Second-Floor Front
II Sunday of Lent
March 16, 2025
The book of Genesis has been examined in a lot of ways throughout the centuries and from many different angles. One way I learned to think about it came to me was that Chapter 1 & 2 tell the story of Creation. Chapters 3 to 11 tell the story of De-Creation. Chapters 12 to 50 tells the story of Re-Creation. Last week we heard the story classically referred to as The Fall – de-creation begins with the disobedience of our proto-parents. Today we hear the marvelous beginning of re-creation; God’s direct intervention in human history. The first beneficiary of this is the person called The Father of Faith, Abraham; or as he is known at this point as Abram. The name change is significant, but that reflection will have to wait for another day.
At this juncture, his name is not nearly as important as his response to the intervention. In the first verse, we read: "Go forth from the land of your kins folk and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.” God simply but directly tells Abram to go. God does not say where to go other than the purposefully ambiguous statement “…to a land that I will show you.” This is precisely why Abraham is the Father of Faith. God tells him to go and he goes. He begins to move, led only by the belief that it is God who is leading him.
It is a good thing to remind ourselves of that aspect of faith, we are to follow the lead given to us by God. This applies in everything from our lifelong vocation, employment and charitable giving to the decision to not engage in uncharitable conversation at work, to correct injustice when and where we can, to consistently witness to our faith, asking for the Grace to do so quietly or boldly.
To do this we need encouragement because we are basically weak and subject to our weakness. Even in this Second week of Lent we may find that our timidity makes us willing to throw in the towel on those resolutions we have made to forgo something and forget the sacrifice we were so ready to take on Ash Wednesday. The fasting that we have begun can take different forms. Rather than fasting from coffee or chocolate or television; consider fasting from engaging in gossip. Fast on being late for Mass, or its corollary, fast from leaving early. Fast from standing in the vestibule, join the gathered assembly. Resist the temptation to be uncharitable in your words which can wound like the slash of a knife. And do not arrogantly try to mount the moral high ground, attempting to cover your remarks with a sophistical assertion like: “well it’s the truth, isn’t it?” Remember the great line from Oscar Wilde, who had a lot of great lines. In the play A woman of no importance, a character with the excessively British name of Lord Illingworth (An actual person) reflects on the matter of repentance. Wilde who himself knew the need for repentance has his Lordship say: The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
Like Abram of old, like the disciples of Jesus, we too are to follow His lead and in an act of brave faithfulness, we too, are to go. To go with the Lord in a direction he will indicate. Go with Him to care for the poor and marginalized through your generosity to Operation Rice Bowl. Go with Him to the person at work or in the classroom or in your family room who needs an uplifting word and would benefit enormously from an act of kindness. Follow Him as he leads us through a Lent of repentance, humbly seeking His will and His presence in our world and confidently asking to fulfill His will and be His presence to those who make up our lives and our loves. This weekend is a moment of encouragement along our Lenten journey.
Because of our Lenten Journey, we are to be different. When I was Academic Dean at our Seminary, each year I would ask the faculty the same question: What difference will the treatment make? What will make your student a better candidate for ordination. How will he be different in May than he was in September? I have the same question for you as we continue our Lenten Journey: What difference will the treatment make? What difference will Lent make for you?
Faithfully,
Msgr. Diamond