Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Today’s readings begin with a covenant – a promise made between the Lord and Abram in which Abram’s life is so changed by his “yes” to the Lord that he receives a new name. He becomes a new person in the Lord – no longer Abram but Abraham. We, ourselves, experience this same life-changing covenant in the sacraments. In the sacrament of confirmation we are given a confirmation name. We become a new person in the Lord as we accept the Lord’s call to change our lives and focus on Him, often with the guidance of a saint or holy person. Additionally, in the sacrament of marriage, our name is changed. We take on a new identity as we are united with one another in the Lord. When my sister took her vows as a religious sister she too was given a new name. In each of these moments we make a promise to the Lord, a promise that is so important that our entire identity is changed. Receiving a new name sets us apart as new beings in the Lord, new vessels of the spirit.
In these moments, just as in Abram’s covenant, we are called to change our lives - our prayer, our thoughts, our actions and words so that we may be a reflection of Christ’s spirit and his love. We are told in the psalm that the Lord remembers his covenant forever. The hard part is for us to remember the covenant, for us to constantly live as members of a holy covenant.
When we make this change and we live according to our covenant with the Lord we may get reactions similar to the ones that Jesus gets in the Gospel. Jesus, living out the Lord’s will, is told that he must be possessed. He must be crazed. How often does following the call of the Lord illicit a similar reaction for us? The world often cannot understand the choices we make when we prayerfully discern God’s will in our lives. The secular world may think we are crazy, not in touch with reality, out of it – just as the Jews thought Christ was.
Guided by the lives of the saints and the holy men and women in our lives, we must focus our hearts on living out our covenants, living God’s will, not conforming to the values of our world. Based on the standards of the secular world we live in - greed, power, money, taking care of yourself, it only makes sense that living a Christian life of simplicity, generosity and humility would make some people think you are crazy. Just know that surrounded by the communion of saints, both living and dead, you are in good company.
- AJ Grimm