Courtney McGrailThe first words that God spoke to Abram were: “Leave your country, your birthplace, your father’s house” (Genesis 12:1). I have often wondered what might explain Abram’s immediate and unquestioning compliance with this call from God. In order to reflect on Abram’s astonishing faith, I would like to first point out that there is a problem when it comes to translating the Hebrew text that recounts this episode. As a Catholic who prays in Hebrew, I want to share that the word “leave” does not communicate the fullness of the original Hebrew expression “laykh lekha”.
This is almost impossible to translate – perhaps “go unto yourself”. It is an extremely rare Biblical expression that outside the story of Abram is found only in the Song of Songs, that wonderful book in our Bible that celebrates love. Abram’s response to God’s call is only explicable if we realise that the context for the response is love – the experience of being loved and of loving. However, what can explain this love of Abram for a God he has only just encountered? This, the Biblical text does not tell us.
I would like to share with you a personal experience that might illuminate just such a call and the love it provokes. I was not born a Catholic, but rather was born and raised a Jew in a wonderful Jewish family of refugees from Germany, who fled the Nazis and found refuge in South Africa. At the age of 15, my parents sent me to Jerusalem, where I have lived ever since. I was then a proud Jew but completely secular and quite sure that there was no God. The proof that He did not exist was the darkness of a world full of tragedy and suffering.
Shortly after my arrival in the Holy City, I went off to look for an elderly lady who could share with me her memories of the Russian Revolution in 1917. I was fascinated by this period of history and had heard of an 89-year-old woman with a clear head who had vivid memories of that time. She was a Russian Orthodox nun, who had lost family, possessions and privilege in the revolution.
When I was ushered into her little room, I discovered that in addition to all the other tragedies in her life, she had also been paralysed and had spent the past 20 years confined to her bed.
Memories
We spent almost three hours together, she sharing her vivid memories of those times and I, just 15 at the time, listening entranced by the story. As I returned home something struck me that took me completely by surprise. I realised that I had just encountered the most joyful person I had ever met. Impossible, I said to myself, an 89-year-old nun, paralysed – no love, no movement, no future… I must have gotten it wrong. A few days later, I returned to Mother Barbara and said to her: “I have not come back to learn more about Russia but rather to ask you: Why are you so happy?” She turned her radiant face to me and with some embarrassment at my impudent question and she said: “I am in love”.
I was astounded at the answer: an 89-year-old, paralysed nun with a romantic story to tell. “And who is he?” I asked. Slowly she began to speak about Jesus, her Lord and Saviour. And he was with us, unmistakably and undeniable present in her radiant authentic joy! This was no mystical vision – this was an authentic witness of joy that created the conditions in which a 15-year-old agnostic encountered the Risen Messiah.
As I realised that I had encountered Him in her joy, I also understood another part of the call of Abram. Again the English translation does not always communicate the directness of the Hebrew text.
After God has commanded Abram to go, he commands him to be blessing for all: “Be blessing”. In a certain sense, the history of incarnation, of God taking on flesh, begins in the commandment to Abram: “Be blessing”.
Until then God has blessed but now, he turns to the one who has encountered Him in love and commands him to be blessing. The call to love that is lived in joy becomes blessing for the broken world in which we live.
Fr David Neuhaus SJ is Latin Patriarchal Vicar, Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.