Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Lord speaking to us about the Covenant which He has made with His people, beginning with Abraham, our father in faith, who is a righteous and upright man, a model for each and every one of us in how we ought to live our lives. And we are urged by the Lord Himself to bear good fruits in our lives, so that our lives may truly be worthy of Him.

In our first reading today, we heard of the moment when the Lord made the Covenant with His servant Abraham, calling him into a new existence, one that is blessed and filled with God’s grace, as his faithfulness, dedication and uprightness have been found to be good and worthy by God, as a man whose life has been filled with good faith and bear truly good fruits, in his commitment to God, in his obedience to His call and in adherence to His will, and in his loving and compassionate attitudes to his fellow men.

For example, Abraham, then called Abram came from the faraway land of Ur in lower Mesopotamia, which was then a great centre of civilisation. Surely Abram had a good life in his ancestral lands, judging by the large amount of wealth and possessions that he had. Yet, the Lord called him out of that land to follow His lead into the land He promised to him and his descendants, and Abram obeyed the Lord faithfully.

Leaving his ancestral lands behind, Abram came to the land promised to him, and there, he laboured and suffered, yes, he did suffer quite a lot, having to travel from places to places, and even sojourning for a while in Egypt during a bad famine, and yet, he remained faithful and committed, and showed his great faith, commitment and dedication in his generosity, his compassionate love for his fellow men.

In one example, when the Lord said to Abraham that he would destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness, Abraham, who knew that Lot and his family, his relatives stayed in that city, and how there might have been some other people who were righteous and might be caught in the destruction, begged the Lord a few times to spare the whole towns just for the sake of even the few righteous ones who were there, including Lot and his family.

This is what Our Lord said in the Gospel passage today, when He spoke of the parable using the example of a good tree that produces good fruits, and how bad trees produce bad fruits. Abraham is an example of a good tree that produces good fruits, which refers to his good, compassionate and kind heart, his loving and faithful self, which is shown in his actions, filled with love and compassion, with faith and commitment to God, in his sincerity to be a righteous man of God.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, how about us then? We are all in fact the children of Abraham through faith, as he is truly our father in faith. We are therefore, the partakers of the same Covenant which God has promised with Abraham, and which He has renewed over and over, and finalised with the Eternal Covenant that He had made with us all through the loving sacrifice of His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross.

Therefore, all of us are also expected to follow the good examples of Abraham, in how he had lived faithfully and dedicated his whole life to serve the Lord and in being righteous in all of his actions. Are we able to do that, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we able to commit ourselves in the way that Abraham had done, in how he trusted God completely and devoted himself to walk in God’s ways?

Let us all reflect on this today, and see how we can be better disciples and followers of Christ from now on. Let our lives be living and real examples of faith, of righteousness, so that our lives will truly bear good fruits of our faith, and we may be worthy to receive the eternal glory and inheritance that God has promised Abraham, our father in faith, and all of us, God’s beloved children and people. Amen.