5TH THURSDAY HOMILY IN LENT — YEAR A
HOMILY THEME: “BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS, I AM.”
BY: Bishop Anthony Ewherido
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15
By virtue of God’s covenant with Abram, God changed his name to Abraham and gave him the promise of becoming the father of nations (in Hebrew, Av-raham). The Jews in today’s gospel restated the common Jewish claim that Abraham, the first Israelite patriarch, was their father (Av-raham avinu), because of their natural heritage. We too are Abraham’s children by baptism. His fatherhood, we must however remember, is the product of his firm faith in God, who changed his name from Abram to Abraham. Such faith, St. Paul (Rom 4:1-5) notes, justified Abraham before God.
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Abraham’s faith was characterized by his promptness in doing whatever God asked of him, without questioning or doubting. Abraham’s children should be people with such faith, hearing Jesus’ word and putting it into practice (without questioning or doubting), unlike the Jews in today’s gospel. The discussion on Abraham, however, created an opportunity for Jesus’ revelation of his divinity, with the same divine appellation that God gave to Moses as his name in Exod 3:13-14 (“I AM”). Jesus, fully divine and human, is the one through whom we become children, not just of Abraham, but of God, and heirs to our eternal inheritance with the Father (Rom 8:15-17). Like Abraham, we must live by our name and identity: children of God. Jesus teaches us that we must do that as a mandate, an imperative; by being light of the world and salt of the earth (Matt 5:13-16). In the midst of a world that is engulfed by the evils of faithlessness, ungodliness, corruption, immorality, cruelty, inhumanity and wars, we are called to let our light shine brightly, so that God’s goodness through us may have a redemptive impact on our world, beginning in our own little corner.
Loving God, protect your children. Amen.
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