Today's first reading surely leaves us somewhat astonished: why, after God made a covenant with Abram and promised him a great lineage and land, did He tell him to perform that strange act of cutting those animals? This was the way a covenant/agreement/contract was made at that time; that is, when two people made an agreement, they would cut animals in half, place the two parts at some distance from each other, and they themselves would stand facing each other a little apart, with the pieces of the animals on their right and left. As they moved towards each other, they would recite the agreement or covenant. This meant that whoever broke the covenant would suffer the same fate as those animals. However, in this case, there is something extraordinary: while on one side there is Abram, on the other side there is God. This is the beginning of the journey of love that God started with mankind; He begins to gradually draw near to us to show us who He is and, therefore, also who we are.
God had called Abram and asked him to leave his country and go to a land he did not know. He promised him that he would have a great lineage, as numerous as the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky. However, even though much time had passed since this promise, Abram was still without children. God took the initiative to speak to him and made this covenant with him. The faith of Abram is astonishing: "And Abram believed in the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness." Abram's faith led him to have blind trust in God. Therefore, Abram becomes our father in faith because his faith meant a relationship of great trust and love towards God.
God chose Abram so that through him He could initiate the chosen people, the people He was preparing to receive His Son as man. In the person of Jesus, God gave us His very own Son. In today's Gospel, Jesus is revealing His glory as God to the three apostles closest to Him. He does this, first of all, to show them that He is the fulfilment of the entire revealed Word/Bible and that without Him, one cannot understand it. Indeed, Moses, who represents the Law, and Elijah, who represents prophecy, together represent the Jewish Bible. Secondly, Jesus wanted to prepare the apostles for the moment of His passion and death so that they would not be scandalised when they witnessed the horror of the cross. With Jesus in the centre, and Moses and Elijah on either side speaking about His passion, He wants to show the apostles—and us—that His death was not a tragic fate but the entire loving plan of the Father, in which His Son Jesus would take upon Himself the sin and suffering of all humanity.
This vision occurs while Jesus is praying; this should signify for us that we cannot have an authentic experience of God unless we become people of prayer. The drowsiness felt by Abram and also by the apostles shows us that the evil spirit does everything it can to hinder us from seriously encountering God. Above all, this Gospel is inviting us to welcome the Father's Word: "This is my chosen Son; listen to Him." How important it is to ask ourselves: who do I listen to in my life? (to listen, not just to hear)—what someone says, no matter who they are, what my own mind tells me, or what Jesus tells me?
Lord Jesus, how many times in our lives have we been ungrateful by not paying attention to what You have done for us, but instead only focusing on worldly things? From our hearts today, we ask You for forgiveness and for the grace to love You first and above all, and to be instruments in Your hands so that Your love may reach others through us. Ammen.