The Call of Abraham

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country.’ ” --Genesis 12:1 

Talk about imperious. 
Without a by-your-leave, 
Or, may I presume? 
No previous contact, 
no letter of introduction, 
no greeting, 
just out of the blue 
this unknown God 
issues edicts. 

This is not a conversation. 
Am I a nobody 
to receive decrees 
from one whose name 
I do not know? 
And at our first encounter!

I have worshipped my own god. 
To you I have addressed no prayers, 
offered no sacrifices, 
asked no favors, 
but quick, 
like sudden fire in the desert, 
without the most elemental ritual, 
I hear “Go.”

At seventy-five, 
Am I supposed to scuttle my life, 
take that ancient wasteland, Sarai, 
place my thin arthritic bones 
upon the road 
to some mumbled nowhere?

Let me get this straight.
I will be brief. 
I summarize. 
In ten generations since the Flood 
you have spoken to no one.

You give commands: 
pull up my tent, 
desert my home, 
the graves of my ancestors, 
my friends next door, 
leave Haran 
for a country you do not name, 
there to be a stranger,
a sojourner.

God of the wilderness, 
from two desiccated lumps, 
from two parched prunes 
you promise to make a great nation. 
In me all peoples of the earth
will be blessed.

You come late, Lord, very late,
but my camels leave in the morning. 

-- Fr. Kilian McDonnell, OSB (1921- ), American monk, poet, and theologian at St. John's Abbey

Relevant Scripture: Genesis 12:1-4a, Lent 2A

Painting: Francesco Bassano, Abraham Leaves Haran, 1560-1592