By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
THE WORD IN LENT – Friday, Second week
March 01, 2024 – Genesis 37:3-4,12-13,17-28; Matthew 21: 33-43,45-46
Through the desert, God leads us to freedom. We journey towards freedom with our trust in God, and we reflected yesterday. The question today is, but why God? Why do we have to trust in God?
The answer is: who else can we? On what else can we find our lives, other than God’s love for us? In whom can we really place our trust and confidence if not God, who knows us through and through? God alone is the Truth and God alone knows the truth… to acknowledge that absolutely is integrity. It is only through truth and integrity that we can really journey towards true freedom.
Joseph of the Old Testament was threatened for being true to his dreams, and revelations from God. He was condemned to be killed by his own brothers but God raised him to the throne, to save his entire household. Jesus was being threatened for being true to his identity—that God and he were one and that he was the revelation of God. He was condemned to be killed by his own people, but God raised him to New life, to save us God’s people, God’s children! Joseph and Jesus are presented to us as beloveds of God, living in truth and integrity – they were free children of God.
Certainly, it was not difficult for Joseph or Jesus to understand where their lives was leading them to, at least for the present; still, they chose to remain faithful to the call that they had received, standing for truth and living in integrity. Faithfulness to God is faithfulness to Truth, and truth alone can set us free because it leads us to integrity and empowers us in times of trouble and threat.
Living the will of God is living the dreams that God has for us, which God alone knows; our faithfulness to those dreams, even that God alone knows. In spite of its hiddenness, our faithfulness to it, is the integrity that leads us to freedom, the absolute freedom that God leads us to.
God loved the world so much that God gave God’s only Son; the Son loved God so much that he gave himself entirely; how much do we love God and God’s Son and what are we ready to give up, that we may live for and live by truth. In that integrity, we shall find our way to Freedom, the promised land of Salvation.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He holds doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.