Reflection for the Second Sunday of Lent

Second Sunday of Lent: Reading I, Year C

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18

The Lord God took Abram outside and said,
“Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.
Just so,” he added, “shall your descendants be.”
Abram put his faith in the LORD,
who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.

He then said to him,
“I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans
to give you this land as a possession.”
“O Lord GOD,” he asked,
“how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
He answered him,
“Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat,
a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
Abram brought him all these, split them in two,
and placed each half opposite the other;
but the birds he did not cut up.
Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses,
but Abram stayed with them.
As the sun was about to set, a trance fell upon Abram,
and a deep, terrifying darkness enveloped him.

When the sun had set and it was dark,
there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch,
which passed between those pieces.
It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram,
saying: “To your descendants I give this land,
from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates.”

In the story related from the book of Genesis, Abram receives a promise from God, or rather two promises which build on each other. He will have descendants like the stars in the sky, and those descendants will receive a certain land to live on. After the second promise is made, Abram asks for a sign. “How am I to know that I shall possess [the land]?” God’s response is not verbose. He does not heap up assurances or explain how it will all come true. Instead, God responds with a bold and definitive action. He makes a covenant with Abram. He seals his promises in blood. Though we would likely not recognize this sign in our time, Abram knew what it meant. He now knows that he will possess the land because God has committed Himself to making this reality come about.

We, too, have received promises from God. The Gospels record many that Jesus spoke, and they were meant for each of us personally. Jesus promises that the Father knows our needs and will take care of us, even more wonderfully than how He takes care of flowers or birds. (Mt 6:25-32) Jesus doesn’t stop at earthly promises, though. In fact, most of His promises entail things that go far beyond what we can imagine. We are promised eternal life (Jn 5:24, Mk 10:30, etc.), peace unlike what the world offers (Jn 14:27), rest for our souls (Mt 11:29), another advocate from the Father (Jn 14:16), and so much else. Look through the Gospels for yourself, and see all that the Lord promises. Let the desires in your heart be stirred as you read His intentions which go far beyond what we could articulate on our own.

It is clear that God makes each of us many promises that are even greater than those spoken to Abram. He was promised earthly prosperity. We are promised life in the world to come, ultimate rest, real peace, sanctification, a divine inheritance, and much more. Sometimes it all seems too good to be true and perhaps warrants our own question, just like Abram’s. How am I to know that all of this will come true? God’s response is again bold and definitive. He seals the promises in blood. Not the blood of some animals this time, but His own. In Jesus’ crucifixion, we can see that God means what He says. He has committed Himself to making this reality come about. Therefore, we can hope. In fact, we should hope. God begs us to trust in Him and allow Him to meet our true needs and fulfill our deepest, grandest desires. Without this trust, we may be so concerned with trying to fulfill ourselves that we close ourselves off to His work. Similarly, without a belief that the fulfillment of our desires is possible, we may stop raising our eyes above the horizon at all. Hope is necessary to being open to what God wants to give.

So, how do we do it? How exactly does one practice or grow in hope? Saint Thomas Aquinas recommends prayers of petition. It is natural, he says, for us to ask for what we want from the person who can give it to us, and this is exactly what prayers of petition do. We don’t ask for things from God for the same reason that we ask other people, though. We don’t ask Him in order to make known our desires or convince Him to satisfy them. Instead, we ask things from Him “so that we may reflect on our shortcomings and may turn our minds to desiring fervently and piously what we hope to gain.” (Compendium of Theology, Part II, Chapter 2) Any prayer of petition, made thoughtfully and intentionally, will bring about that end. However, to make this even simpler, Aquinas says that the Lord’s Prayer is ideal, as it was given to us in order to “carry us on to a living hope.” (Comp., Pt II, Ch 3) Through this prayer, we remember in whom we are placing our trust – Our Father in Heaven. We’re also reminded of all we can expect from Him – His Kingdom, our daily bread, forgiveness of trespasses, and more. Nothing can be more effective or straightforward in reminding us of God’s promises and how we are to know that they will happen. This Lent, as our desires become more acute, let us bring them to the Lord. He has already promised to fulfill them and sealed these promises in blood.