Homily
for Thursday
5th Week
of Lent
April
7, 2022
Gen
17: 3-9
Christian
Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle
“Your name shall be Abraham” (Gen 17: 5).
You
and many other religious have the practice to taking a new name when you make
your profession. The Popes do the same
when they assume office. The change
signifies that you’ve become a new person, a new creation, thru your religious
profession.
God
does that with Abram, “the father is exalted,” extending his name to Abraham,
“father of a host of nations,” according to the etymology of Gen 17:4. His covenantal relationship with God makes
him a new character before God.
All of us, Christian Brothers or others, received a new name and entered a covenantal relationship with God when we were baptized into Jesus Christ. We assumed the name “Christian.” That lofty name was bestowed on us as a gift from God, as noble as the call God gave to Abraham, even nobler than our call as religious.
God
said to Abraham, “I will render you exceedingly fertile” (17:6). He doesn’t make us fertile in physical
offspring as he did Abraham. He makes us
fertile in the workings of grace, in propagating the divine life to humanity,
because we bear the name and the power of Christ our Lord.
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