23 June 2021 - Wednesday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time - Religious Freedom Week - Genesis 15:1-12 and 17-18

     For the last two weeks in our daily Masses, we had been hearing readings from St Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.  This week, we hear the story of Abraham from the book of Genesis.  As we hear God tell Abraham in a vision,  “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield; I will make your reward very great,” I thought about the Gospel we heard this past Sunday, of Jesus out with the disciples during a storm at sea, with the disciples afraid of perishing, with Jesus asking them, “Why are you terrified?  Do you not yet have faith?”  As we look at the state of religious freedom in our country in the midst of Religious Freedom Week, which began last week, we might be scared at what we see.  Many in our modern society in American, especially young adults, are turning their backs on the Church and the values of the faith.  We see our freedom to practice our religion under attack.  We see lies being told about our faith and we see very few people outside of the Church defending us.  For example, back in July of last year, Mission San Gabriel, one of the oldest mission buildings in the West and the mother church of the Los Angeles area, was burned down under very suspicious circumstances.  We barely heard about that in the news media, did we? Back in May, a man was arrested for arson in the burning down of that church.  We did not hear a peep out of the media about that, did we?  Curious, isn’t it?  

      I think of the themes of faith and trust in our readings about Abraham this week, about the covenant and promise God made to Abraham and his descendants.  Abram’s total trust in God’s promises are retold again again down through the ages in the history of the Jewish people.  This trust is giving testimony in the New Testament as well.   Today, in Jesus, we have a new covenant; it is for us to be part of it. Let us pray for that faith and trust of Abram, when against all hope he continued to hope.  Let us have faith and trust in God that he will give us the courage to defend our faith and defend the freedom to practice our religious beliefs for all Americans.