2 nd

Sunday
Cycle A
12 March 2017

Gen. 12:1-4A
II Tim. 1:8B-10 Mt.
17:1-9
INTRODUCTION:
To appreciate this passage, let us see what
happened before Gen. 12 after the Fall
when Adam and Eve, at the decisive
moment of history, refused to listen to God,
arrogating to themselves, the
determination of right and wrong, the
criterion of judging good and evil.
1
What happened after the Fall in Gen. 3?

Humanity steps from the Garden of

Eden into a desert, evoking the idea
of Land of Exile.
Eden becomes a desert!
1 What happened after the Fall
between Genesis 4 and 11?

We find the story of Cain and Abel (Gen. 4);

1 What happened after the Fall
between Genesis 4 and 11?

the Floods (Gen. 6)

1 What happened after the Fall
between Genesis 4 and 11?

and then the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11)

1
In other words, we find
jealousy, rivalry, anger,
murder, imperialism,
arrogance, drunkenness;
indeed, a wickedness that
spreads over the entire
face of the earth.
1
Where do these
permutations of human
dysfunctions
From comeof
the primal problem from?
refusing to
listen to the voice of God: human beings
no more acting according to their proper
identity as stewards, viceroys and priests as
God intended them to be but now acting as
kings and masters (gods) of the whole
1 "When we sin, we
lose the image and
likeness of God and
journey to the land
of dissimilitude."

- St.
1

We are no
longer like
unto God!
2
What does God do
then, when His
Creation has been
disrupted and human
beings no longer His
viceroys and priests?
2
He sends a
rescue
operation!
His rescue operation is going to come in the
form of a people trained to listen once
again to the voice of the Lord.
2 The first thing we read
in Genesis 12 is "God
said to Abram: Leave
your Country . . . for the
Land I will show you. . .
I will bless you and
make you a great
Nation."
2
The entire history of
salvation hinges on the
question:

"Will Abram listen?

2
And the story of Abram
ends:

"So Abram went as the

Lord directed him."
2
It is as if the whole of
Creation makes a sigh
of relief that finally
Abram begins a people,
called Israel or God's
Chosen People, who
listens to the voice of
God as his viceroys and
2

God's grace
can flow
again on the
world.
2
Abram begins the story of the
likes of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph,
Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David,
Isaiah, Elijah, Jeremiah,
Esther, Ruth, Mary, Peter,
James, John, Paul
-- all spiritual descendants of
Abraham!
3
Flash forward 1500 years after
Abraham to the time when a rabbi,
climbing a mountain in the Holy
Land that God has shown to
Abraham and suddenly his
countenance
metamorphosed/transfigured into
dazzlingly white before his disciples
"This is my Beloved Son . . .
who were told:
3 Once more the disciples of Jesus
are being told to listen to the
Incarnate Son of God!

This is the Church descended from

Abraham to Jesus transfigured to us
3
That is why during Lent,
the Church recommends

which is the attentive listening to God.

3
God speaks to us even
now like following
directions from a voice
in the web called
waze.
CONCLUSION: Listening to God as in
prayer is like following
directions from a voice at
the waze.

+ART
 CONCLUSION:

If we do that, we become
really and truly sons and
daughters of Abraham;
children of God like Adam
and Eve back in the Garden
of Eden before the Fall!

+ART