Wednesday, 6/26/13
The first reading tells us how God made his covenant with
Abraham in 1800 B.C. back when Abraham did not know how to read and write. For the
formal ceremony of agreeing to the covenant God let Abraham make the
preparations in the only way Abraham knew such things could be done.
Back then there were no governments or formal laws, there
were only wandering tribes with their members being completely obedient to
their leaders. When it was necessary for two wandering tribes to reach an
agreement for sharing grassland or water rights they prepared for a ceremony by
digging a three-foot trench across a field between tribes squatting on opposite
sides of that field. Then, they would slice down the middle a three-year-old
heifer, a she goat, and a ram; placing the halves opposite each other at
different stretches of the ditch.
At the same moment the leader of each tribe would step down
into his end of the ditch, then walk toward the other, saying, “If I or any of
my men interfere with your rights let me be cut in two like this heifer, she
goat, and ram.”
(I have read that up to the present when two nations make a
covenant the technical language speaks of their “cutting” a covenant.)
In our Mass reading Abraham made all the preparations, then
he sat down, waiting, at his end of the ditch. As evening approached a sleep
came over Abraham. (It was the same sleep that came over Adam when God removed
his rib to form Eve.) Through the darkness Abraham saw God’s torch approaching
from the far side of the ditch, touching the halves of the ram, goat, and
heifer as it came.
This story assures us that God meets with every one of us on
his or her level. He takes an easy, straight-forward way of coming to terms even with
mentally deranged people and with infants.
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