LEAVE YOUR FATHER’S HOUSE, FOR THE LAND I WILL SHOW YOU

HOMILY FOR 2ND SUNDAY OF LENT -YEAR A

THEME: LEAVE YOUR FATHER’S HOUSE, FOR THE LAND I WILL SHOW YOU

R1: Gen 12: 1- 4

R2: 2 Tim 1: 8 - 10

Gospel:  Mt 17:1 - 19

The first reading of today begins with an instruction from the Lord to Abram; “Leave your country, your family house and your father’s, for the land I will show you.” (Gen 12:1). This divine instruction forms the basis of our reflection this Sunday. 

Dear friends, this command; “LEAVE”, is a gentle reminder and a reawakening of the consciousness that the Lenten season is a time we embark on a spiritual journey. This journey has at its end a transforming effect, just as Abram became Abraham when he moved according to God’s instruction. It has the resurrection and salvation at its end. It is not a physical movement rather an internal movement which must transform the inner self. 

It is an invitation to break away from the self-imprisonment to sin and the world. The journey must challenge our comfort zones, from where this movement will begin. “Leave your father’s house”, the phrase, “your father’s house”, implies one’s comfort zone. Therefore, this is an invitation to take a risk and to make a step forward and break off from one’s shell. “Your father’s house”, stands for one’s bad habits, imprisonment to sin and careless lifestyle. Sometimes, we feel very comfortable with these lifestyles as though we were at home. God invites us today to break up from them, or to leave them. St Paul in the second reading encourages that we should bear all things for the sake of Christ and what awaits us (2 Tim 1:8). Thus, for the sake of Christ, move.

This invitation to leave this our comfort zone (bad character) is not usually an easy one. It is like swallowing a bitter pill. It is not simple to leave what one is used to and to start thinking of a new pattern. Thus, we may ask, what would the new pattern look like? What will be my fate in the new one? This reality confronted the apostles and they asked, Lord, we have left everything to follow you, what shall we gain? (Mt 19:27). It is a movement that is characterized by uncertainties.  

God’s invitation to embark on this journey is not a movement to nowhere. It is a movement to a better place;  “the land he will show us.” It is a movement to the land of transformation. Jesus made this movement to the mountain today and he was transfigured. When Moses made this movement away from the Israelites, his face became as bright as the sun (Ex 34:35). Hence, it is a movement to where we shall become new, with many possibilities and opened doors. It is a movement to the land of salvation.

The Lenten season offers us an opportunity for this spiritual exercise, in which we may develop an inner disposition to recognise what is important for this movement. It offers us an opportunity to take this difficult step with Jesus to the mountain of transfiguration. Therefore, God is calling on us to go beyond our natural limits and move higher in spirit. It is a call to move from bad to God. It is a sweet invitation to what awaits us ahead which is the land of milk and honey (the kingdom of God).

Homily by:

Rev Fr Chukwuemeka Vincent Livinus, SMMM.