Homily for Friday, Week 12 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Friday
12th Week of Ordinary Time

June 25, 2021
Gen 17: 1, 9-10, 15-22
Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle, N.Y.

“When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said: ‘I am God the Almighty.  Walk in my presence and be blameless’” (Gen 17: 1).

Abraham and his family on the move

(Jozsef Molnar)

Our passage from Genesis this morning seems long enuf with 11 verses.  It’s less than half of the 27 verses of the whole chapter, which seems to introduce us anew to Abram’s relationship with God and to God’s covenant with him.  According to the experts, this passage comes from the Priestly Source of Genesis, whereas earlier versions of the same material come from the Yahwist Source.

God begins by introducing himself to Abram as “God the Almighty,” El Shaddai.  He commands Abram to be a disciple, a companion even, to “walk in my presence,” and he commands him, as well, to “be blameless,” to be upright.  In the total context of Abram’s story, going back to his move from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan in obedience to God, this new command or repeated command can mean simply that he should continue as he has been.

So much is left out of ch. 17 that today we skip over God’s changing Abram’s name to Abraham and his promise that Abraham, “father of a multitude,” will beget a multitude of descendants bound to him by a covenant.  God graciously states what he’ll do for Abraham:  “I will give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are now staying, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God” (17:8).  That restates God’s earlier covenant promise (Gen 15).

This is new:  for Abraham’s part, he, his household, and his descendants will signify their acceptance of God’s gift thru circumcision of the menfolk—a common enuf practice, actually, among some Middle Eastern tribes, but not in Babylon and Sumer, where Abraham came from.

Abraham prostrates himself before God (17:17), taking the posture of a vassal or a suppliant.  In fact, after he laughs to himself and thinks skeptically regarding having a son by Sarah, he voices his skepticism  with a suppliant’s plea concerning Ishmael, his son by Sarah’s slave girl.

Abraham’s story reveals to us once more God’s initiative in guiding our salvation.  He’s gracious in his promises to Abraham, and he’s gracious in his patience with Abraham’s skepticism.

Abraham, that man of faith so often held up to us, has doubts!  Like any of us, he falters, as do we sometimes, if not in faith, then in some other area of the spiritual life and the life of virtue.  God sticks by him, and he sticks by us, too.  In the long run, Abraham does walk in God’s presence and remain faithful.  He remains a model of faith for us.  God doesn’t find us “blameless” in his presence, but his grace thru Jesus Christ renders us blameless.

The covenant between God and Abraham was sealed in Abraham’s flesh and the flesh of all his male descendants, including our Lord Jesus.  God has given us who follow Jesus a new covenant sealed in flesh—in the body and blood of Jesus, given for us 1st on the cross, then in the Eucharist, so that we might ratify the covenant as often as we partake of the living flesh of our Savior.