ACISJF and the church
Go forth ... and you shall be a blessing
COME AND SERVE OF BLESSING
April 2017
Address to ACISJF by Father P. Roland-Bernhard Trauffer OP
"The Lord said to Abraham, "Go forth ... and you shall be a blessing" (Genesis 12:1-4).
Were we ever once a "blessing" to others? Is there anyone who has expressed his gratitude to us because we have been faithful in a difficult situation when we did not leave this person alone? Have we already received the good from the experience of being blessed?
It is a wonderful thing to experience being blessed. "You shall be a blessing," exhorts God to Abraham, connecting this invitation with His promise of blessing to himself and to all the families of the world.
Abraham receives from God the invitation to get out of his existential conditions. You must leave all this, that up to here was your security.
It means total separation. He must break with his origin, with his country, with the men of his confidence and find something completely unknown and new. The goal is not defined. He only knows that God is going to be with him.
Abraham leaves. He does not go out alone. That men are alone, in the ancient oriental world, is a novelty. No one lives alone, each and every one is part of a family. But he leaves all that was his safety and protection, his extended family and orientation; and now walks to an unknown future. What will it be, will it be open? It is possible that he, Sarah, and his children await him a better life. But it is also possible that it will have challenges and difficulties which can no longer be overcome. When he goes out with his own, he and his family will be strangers.
What was the motivation to leave? Was it only the promise of God? Outings are not always voluntary; surely not, most of all when people have already grown up. "The exits are for the young," you can think. Young people leave, leave their parents' house, change their place to study and learn a profession.
Well, there are many types of outings for all, always again in our life, voluntary and involuntary. Sometimes it is good for us to give up everything, to look for a new path that is not loaded and fixed in the past. Sometimes there are forced exits: men are rejected in their social environment and uprooted.
What was the departure of Abraham and Sarah? An involuntary exit? In retrospect, they give an interpretation of departure as a promise of God, because they already know the result (in announcement), because the blessing was realized, this blessing that was pronounced at the moment of departure; because they have now found a new foundation of life, a new homeland, and new friends and friends.
In retrospect the history of life is revealed in a new light and explicit from what was previously hidden. In retrospect, meaning is understood. But by the time I get out, I may not know Him. Where the road leads, often remains darkness.
It is important that the promise of blessing was tied to the command: "You shall be a blessing." Abraham must give others the blessing he has received from God. Others must also partake of this blessing.
This command can be lost. It is lost when the blessing is reserved for itself or blocked. God wants everyone to be blessed. He who has received a blessing must share it with others. You must also be a blessing to others, above all for those who must risk a way out, for those who need help and support, because they are foreigners or need guidance. You must also be a blessing to them, those who must seek a new homeland, that they need friends and friends.
God has not only blessed Abraham and Sarah. God has blessed us as well. In all our life we must risk exits; until an older age this will not change.
Our commitment to and for ACISJF shows how much we always want to receive, again, the strength to leave, and be a blessing for others.