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Wandering Aramaen


The Wandering Aramean

A Lenten Reflection Presented
To the Catholic Residents and Friends
At the Masonic Pathways

February 25, 2007


By Philip D. Ropp

           Last week, we celebrated Ash Wednesday and the beginning of our annual Lenten journey.  It is a journey from the wilderness of our fallen, sinful human nature to the light that beckons to us from the promised land that lies beyond the Cross.  It is a journey that brings us up and out of the Egypt of this broken promise land of man’s inhumanity to man, and leads us onward through the desert towards a land flowing with the milk and honey of salvation.  It is a journey that will bring us to the very gates of Saint Augustine’s City of God; that New Jerusalem wherein we will one day put on a risen, perfected human nature, the result of God’s gift of eternal life through the saving grace of our beloved savior, Jesus Christ.  It is a quest that is mapped out for us today in Scripture that reassures us that this journey we have undertaken with this Jesus is the best and most exciting thing that we have ever done.

        Today, we stand before this altar and each declares, “My father was a wandering Aramean…” A proclamation now as it was then that we were lost; a people without identity from a race long buried beneath the sands of time; buried in a far off place no longer remembered.  And we, like this wandering Aramean, “…went down to Egypt…” that symbol of slavery to the world and the worldly. And like Esau sold out his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of lentil stew, so we sold our birthright in God’s kingdom for the fleeting wealth and pleasure of the world.  And so we were this nation, this Israel crying out to the Lord from the toil of our oppression to our sin.  And the God of our fathers heard our cry and brought us out of Egypt through the strong hand and outstretched arms of his only son; that we might gather here before him today and gladly offer up to him the first fruits of our love.  What a joy it is to come here before the altar of the Lord and bow down in the presence of he that saves us and arise to behold that soul’s eye view of the glorious land on the other side of the Jordan:  That land that flows with milk and honey:  That land where he has a place already prepared for us.

          Today, we stand with our brother Paul and all the Apostles that have witnessed with such eloquence to the faith that we all do share.  And we join with them and all that ever believed and confess with the angels and saints, and know in our hearts, as do they; that Jesus is Lord and God has raised him from the dead.  Paul assures us that we will not be put to shame.  We are all the children of that wandering Aramean; that lost soul that now is found, and as such we are neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.  For our Lord is indeed the Lord of all; to the uttermost he saves, and all that call upon his name will not be lost. Today, my sisters and brothers, we have gathered for the very purpose of calling upon his name.  His name is Jesus, he is the Word of God, and so Paul reassures us, “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”
 

          Today, we stand with Jesus as he emerges from 40 days of temptation initiated by that master tempter, the devil himself.  This time begins with Jesus fresh from his baptism, filled with the Holy Spirit, and newly proclaimed the Son of God. The devil begins, “If you are the Son of God…” and proceeds to tempt our Master three times with rewards for disobedience to the Father; to lure him into the same kind of rebellion against God that is the curse of Satan himself.  Jesus is tempted and tested as was Israel in the wilderness and later in Canaan, yet he does not sell out his birthright for food as Esau did, nor does he succumb to the lure of empire and worldly riches as did David and Solomon, and neither does he cast himself down and profane the temple as did Jezebel when she turned hearts to the ways of the heathen, and Israel dashed her infant sons on the stones, and passed them through the fire to Molech.  Each time Jesus responds to temptation by quoting from the Book of Deuteronomy and cites the law of Moses in support of why he will not succumb to the devil’s urgings.  This is something Israel was never able to accomplish, and it is at this point that Jesus fulfills the law, overcomes the law, and becomes the law.  He assumes the role of True Israel, tested and triumphant, and so removes the law as the eternal stumbling block from our path and we are saved by the grace he exhibits in doing so.  Jesus prefigures the Act of Salvation at the Cross and anticipates it by taking the law upon him, so that he might, in turn, also assume our sins.   


        Today, we stand and watch as Jesus steps from the wilderness victorious over both the devil and our own sinful human nature.  For forty days and nights he has assumed the mantle of our forefathers and become that wandering Aramean; that symbol of lost and fallen man struggling and failing to find his way back to Eden and live once more in communion with God.  But Jesus does not fail.  Jesus is triumphant and victorious, and he leaves the wasteland of our sin and begins the journey to Jerusalem where he will fulfill his destiny and ours.  While he has entered the wilderness of sin as a wandering Aramean, he has overcome his human nature and ours, and so he has emerged as Christ, the anointed Son of God and True Redeemer of humanity. In Jerusalem he will offer himself up to the perversion that the law has become under the religious parties of the Jews, and go to the Cross to take the sin of human injustice upon him, that we might conquer it as he has done.  From his death on the Cross he becomes the first of many to enter back into the Garden, and as he does, the cherubim with the flaming sword that guards the Tree of Life falls prostrate at his feet and says, “Oh Son of God, do take and eat!”  And Jesus does take and eat then tells the cherubim, “Now I go to bring my friends.”
 

        Today, we stand on the road to Jerusalem and Jesus beckons us to fall in behind him and make this Lenten journey with him.  Today we are invited to be these friends that he is leading towards the Tree of Life.  And when we take up this journey and join ourselves to him, then no longer can we say, “My father was a wandering Aramean,” for now we know full-well that our Father is God Almighty and it is His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that is leading us home to Him.  And so our joy is complete.  But this journey is long and arduous, and so, along the road, he sets this table for us in the presence of our enemies and calls us to receive a regular spiritual sustenance that we may grow stronger in him and not falter along the way.  In anticipation of that heavenly banquet that we will one day share as God’s Family, gathered in the unrestrained eternal presence of the Tree of Life, Jesus says to us today, “Oh friends of God, do take and eat!”  Happy indeed are those that are called to his supper!

 

        Next week, our annual Lenten journey continues.  It remains the journey from the wilderness of our fallen, sinful human nature to the light that beckons to us from the promised land that lies beyond the Cross.  It is the journey that continues to bring us up and out of the Egypt of this broken promise land of man’s inhumanity to man, and leads us onward through the desert towards the land flowing with the milk and honey of salvation.  It is the journey that will bring us to the very gates of Saint Augustine’s City of God; that New Jerusalem wherein we will one day put on our risen, perfected human nature, the result of God’s gift of eternal life through the saving grace of our beloved savior, Jesus Christ.  It is the quest that was mapped out for us today in Scripture that reassures us that this journey we have undertaken with our Jesus is the best and most exciting thing that we have ever done.

February 25, 2007

First Sunday of Lent

Psalm: Sunday 7


Reading 1

Dt 26:4-10

Moses spoke to the people, saying:
“The priest shall receive the basket from you
and shall set it in front of the altar of the LORD, your God.
Then you shall declare before the Lord, your God,
‘My father was a wandering Aramean
who went down to Egypt with a small household
and lived there as an alien.
But there he became a nation
great, strong, and numerous.
When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us,
imposing hard labor upon us,
we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers,
and he heard our cry
and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
He brought us out of Egypt
with his strong hand and outstretched arm,
with terrifying power, with signs and wonders;
and bringing us into this country,
he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
Therefore, I have now brought you the firstfruits
of the products of the soil
which you, O LORD, have given me.’
And having set them before the Lord, your God,
you shall bow down in his presence.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15

R. (cf. 15b) Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
say to the LORD, “My refuge and fortress,
my God in whom I trust.”
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
No evil shall befall you,
nor shall affliction come near your tent,
For to his angels he has given command about you,
that they guard you in all your ways.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Upon their hands they shall bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the asp and the viper;
you shall trample down the lion and the dragon.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress;
I will deliver him and glorify him.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.


Reading II
Rm 10:8-13

Brothers and sisters:
What does Scripture say?
The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart.
That is, the word of faith that we preach,
for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For one believes with the heart and so is justified,
and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
For the Scripture says,
No one who believes in him will be put to shame.
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek;
the same Lord is Lord of all,
enriching all who call upon him.
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Gospel
Lk 4:1-13

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days,
to be tempted by the devil.
He ate nothing during those days,
and when they were over he was hungry.
The devil said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered him,
“It is written, One does not live on bread alone.”
Then he took him up and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him,
“I shall give to you all this power and glory;
for it has been handed over to me,
and I may give it to whomever I wish.
All this will be yours, if you worship me.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“It is written:
You shall worship the Lord, your God,
and him alone shall you serve.”
Then he led him to Jerusalem,
made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down from here, for it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,
and:
With their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“It also says,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
When the devil had finished every temptation,
he departed from him for a time.