We have seen that Abram had emigrated with his father to Carran, but this place is not very different from Ur of Caldea. Misfortune and death accompany them also there. However, desperation does not push Abram. He listens to the invitation of the Lord and obeys freely. He does not give up hope to live in Carran. At seventy-five, with a broken heart, he detaches himself from his Father, hundred-forty-five years old, probably entrusting him to the cares of his younger brother, Nacor.

However, the Lord provides also for Terach, granting to him sixty more years of life. Abram, once again, must set on his journey towards life, starting from a divine choice; thus we see him on his journey, implanting his tend from place to place in the land that the Lord has promised him.  The way towards full freedom is, for him, an itinerary of faith. Abram gradually learns how to obey, thus allowing the Lord to keep his promises, which look impossible and will reveal themselves as a gift of love.

Freedom is risky

The Lord does not compel him; He does not wash the brain of the person whom He calls: He dialogues with him with the love and severity of a father. However, this freedom is risky. The experience of curse, instead of blessing, may succeed in an instant. In fact, Abram, compelled by a famine, thinks that the Promised Land also is a land of death; therefore, he goes to Egypt to look for bread. The life that the Lord had announced to him seems to be still very far. Now, he must satisfy an urgent need; he cannot wait, therefore, he prefers a land of slavery, Egypt, to that of freedom: the Promised Land. He risks losing also the thing for which he had set on that journey: a progeny. Knowing that his wife, Sara, was beautiful and that the Pharaoh could fall in love with her, he does not defend her, but abandons her to her destiny, saying, «Tell him you are my sister, so that they may treat me well because of you and spare my life out of regard for you” (Genesis, 12,13). He exposes her wife to adultery. He prefers his life to the love of Sara, thus repeating the sin of Adam that defended himself by accusing Eva. However, God is constantly at work and does not abandon his servant, even if he is a sinner, as he did not abandon the first couple. A disease dramatically affects the Pharaoh and his court. Experts in the diagnosis of skin diseases say that it is the matter of God’s punishment for the sin of adultery.   The Book of Proverbs also confirms this, «The adulterer has no sense; He works his own destruction» (Pro. 6, 32).

They immediately extradite Abram from Egypt, and the Egyptian soldiers accompany him up to the frontier. He returns to Canaan as a free man with his wife and all his goods, including the compensation, which the Pharaoh has given him. The Lord is still mysteriously present: the Pharaoh, who is the victim, declares his sin of adultery and Abram, who had given him the occasion, strangely receives a benefit. The Lord alone knows how to transform a situation of sin into an occasion of blessing for the man who commits it.

The plans of God and those of man

Abram returns to the Negheb and sets on his journey again, moving from phase to phase up to Betel, in the same phase where he had implanted his tend and erected an altar to the Lord. There He prays the Lord once again, that He may enlighten him on his journey. In fact, it seems that he starts missing the vital space. Abram and his nephew Lot can no longer live together. The separation is peaceful, since Abram is not violent and arrogant. He, the stronger, divides, Lot, the weaker, chooses. Lot chooses the more beautiful part. However, we, readers, know that evil people inhabited those lands and that a catastrophe happened there, which Lot would never have imagined.  

Abram makes a mistake in choosing Lot to be his heir. The Lord invites him paternally, exhorting him to fix his eyes on the land, which is before him and which the Lord will give to him and his descendants. He reiterates the promise of incalculable descendants, “I shall make your descendants like the dust on the ground” (Gen 13, 16). Then Abram fixes his residence: he sets up his tend and settles at Hebron, where he builds up a second altar for the Lord, who has spoken to him, strengthening his faith. 

However, Abram keeps on thinking that the presumed heir is Lot, deported with all his good outside the land in a sudden raid. Thus, he pursues the kidnappers, recovering the goods and, above all, Lot his nephew.

Abram feels victorious and has a prophetic dream. He does not have children of his own, but only a presumed heir: his nephew Lot. It seems that the primitive Hebrew texts do not give the name of his servant Eliezer. Abram complains with the Lord, thinking that the adopted son will be his promised son. However, it is not so: his heir will be his own biological son, “Your heir will be the issue of your own body” (Genesis 15, 4). God courteously invites Abram to count the stars of heaven, and while Abram goes on counting, the Lord confirms the incalculable number of his descendants. After beginning his dialogue in doubt, Abram concludes by answering in faith. The Lord ascribes this to him as meritorious, “This was reckoned to him as uprightness” (Genesis 15, 6).

The journey of Abram continues

The journey of Abram – we have seen – is the journey of the Christian, particularly of the religious. A problem that touches the deep sensitivity of the consecrated persons with vows is the suffering of their old and sick parents. The Word tells them, “Do not be afraid!” Their detachment from parents and relatives creates space for the providence of God that takes care of them in unthinkable ways.

Moreover, after the religious profession, there are clashes for the change of superiors, who are no longer the ones with whom the religious started their journey of vocational discernment. It seems that the detachment from one’s parents has ushered the will of other persons. At first, it seems that Abram also detaches from obedience to his father in other to obey another master, the Lord. In reality, by obeying to the Lord, Abram allows him to fulfil his promises. Similarly, the more the religious walks along the path of faith and the more he/she experiences to walk towards freedom.

However, freedom offered to the Lord is risky, because temptations squatter at the doors of the house. Hunger for affection may prefer an ephemeral pleasure to the happiness of full life in God, as it happened with Abram in Egypt. The religious, however, know that God is committed to them; he is not afraid of their fall and tries his best to take them back to their land, where they can experience the promised happiness. He answers their doubts and anguish with assurances of incalculable greatness, like the stars in heaven.

Once again, the Lord realises the promise of full life on the day of profession, if the consecrated persons keep on abandoning themselves to Him in faith. The initial “yes” is not enough for Abram: he must repeat it in the darkest moments of his life. This is why he is our father in faith.

Tiziano Lorenzin, ofmconv
Faculty of Theology in Triveneto
Via S. Massimo, 25 – 25129 Padova