June 22, 2009 Monday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time

The readings for today are from Chapter 12 of Genesis and the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 7.

God appears to Abram (later Abraham) and encourages him to leave his homestead, familiar surroundings and the rest of his father's tribe to venture to a land unknown to him or any of the prospective travellers.
Abram is known as our father in Faith, just as he is known by the Jews, the nation of Islam and all Christian denominations, true and half-true.
In reading abour his call from God, we wonder why he didn't hesitate even for a second to do God's bidding even though this was their first encounter and Abram whould see God again until his son was to be conceived. Talk about Faith!
Most of us wouldn't go across the street if we weren't sure what was there ahead of time; let alone travel to an unknown country without some in depth research.

God promised to make Abram great! So, at age 75, when most of us are winding down our activity, Abram ventyres south from Haram to Caananite country with his father's son, Lot, His wife Sarai, his wealth and lots of guts to satisfy his God's request.
This is the reason Paul and all following preachers extol Abraham as a man of Faith!

The Gospel story is familiar to us for Christ's admonition, "Don't judge!"
We're pretty much a nation of judgemental attitude.
Our vicarious knowledge of Blacks, their supposed rancor against other enthnics causes us to judge All Balacks as rancorous.
We are sure all Jews are rich, educated and ready to pounch on any situation of suppremecy to put us in the poorhouse.
The Islamic people are all bent on converting everyone to Islam or Else!

Christ makes it a simple ordinance to Not Judge! No One, No How, No Where, as the cowardly lion exclaimed.
We think we're superior to others because out faith is as old as Christ's resurrection. However, if we do not act as He would act, He wasted His breath on us!