A VISITOR COMES
“Yahweh
appeared to him at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of the
tent during the hottest part of the day.” So begins one of the most intriguing
chapters in the bible (Genesis 18). God came in the form of three men and
Abraham immediately gets busy to welcome him/them – are they three or are they
one? The pronoun shifts from singular to plural and the Fathers of the Church
saw here intimations of the future doctrine of the Trinity.
The
Samaritan woman (John 4) came to the well at noon, the hottest time of the day,
and she learnt to welcome this Jewish visitor as “the Messiah.” At another time
Jesus visited two sisters and their brother who was (probably) living with an
intellectual disability (Luke 10). In all three occasions the people visited
took note and welcomed the visitor(s). Luke is quite explicit: “God has visited
his people” (7:16).
All
three occasions are loaded with life-changing consequences. Abraham is to have
a son and the whole drama of salvation history will follow. The woman of
Samaria will have a change of life and become a disciple of the kingdom. The
sisters will enter into a deep personal relationship with Jesus and become the
first contemplatives; and their brother would be raised from the dead as a sign
of the resurrection and the life.
Alfred
Delp was a Jesuit priest arrested by the German police in 1944 towards the end
of the World War. He sat in his cell with his hand bound in chains awaiting
execution and while he waited he wrote. The allies were advancing, Germany was
in ruins and he was about to die. With these dark clouds all around him he took
up his pen[1]
and addressed the reader: “if ever these pages find you…
Let us pray for receptive and willing hearts that the warnings
God sends us may penetrate our minds and help us to overcome the wilderness of
this life. Let us have the courage to take the words of the Messenger to heart
and not ignore them, lest those who are our executioners today may, at some
future time, be our accusers for the suppression of truth.”
We
are “visited” all the time. Sometimes our visitors irritate us; sometimes they
delight us. But always there is a message. If we ignore it we – and others –
will be the losers. I always think the alertness of birds and wild animals is a
constant reminder. We are told the young Samuel “did not let a single word fall
to the ground” (I Sam 3:19). That would be a hard act to follow. But we can
still try. There is darkness around us and we have an urgent duty to light a
candle – and not just curse the darkness.
17 July 2016 Sunday 16 C
Genesis18:1-10 Colossians 1:24-28 Luke 10:38-42
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