The Power of Blessings

March 15 & 16, 2014+ JMJ +

2nd Sunday in Lent, Year A

The Power of Blessings

Based on the first reading, our word for the day is “blessing.” We receive blessings all the time. We say the meal blessing every day. We bless ourselves before every prayer with the sign of the cross. When we enter church, we bless ourselves with holy water, which is water that has been blessed. The priest imparts a blessing to us at the end of every Mass. Even when someone sneezes we say “bless you!”

But like most common practices, we may have trouble defining what a blessing is. Here is the definition the Catechism gives us (in the Glossary): “A blessing or benediction is a prayer invoking God’s power and care upon some person, place, thing, or undertaking.” God, of course, is “the source of all blessing,” since He is the supreme Good and the ultimate Power in the universe. This means that a person who receives a blessing has a special relationship with God. An object or place that receives a blessing has a special connection with God. This is the meaning of the word “holy.” Holy people and holy things are set apart for God.

In Abram’s case, he is definitely set apart for God. In his day, roughly 2,000 years before Jesus, in his country Ur, which became wicked Babylon, the people had fallen away from worship of the One True God. At the Tower of Babel, just before Abram’s call, people had tried to make themselves great without God’s power and care, without His blessing. Like all human endeavors that are begun without God, they failed and were made miserable and foolish, worshipping nature personified in miserable and foolish gods.

But Abram was different. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that Abram was the first person after the Flood to promote belief in the One True God (The Antiquities of the Jews 1.7.1). Whether this was before or after God’s promise to him is uncertain, but we clearly know that Abram received and accepted God’s blessing. He had such confidence in God’s power and care that he left his land, his kinsfolk, and his father’s house for an unknown place and an unknown future. For you or I, the equivalent would be God asking us to move to a country we know nothing about with no map, computer, or telephone, with no way to call back home once we arrived, and to stay there forever.

Abram was willing to risk it all because he had God’s blessing. God’s blessing was so treasured among his descendant, that they even fought over it. Jacob tricked Esau out of their father’s blessing. Fearing that Joseph would receive their father’s blessing, his brothers sold him into slavery. Joseph in turn was upset when his younger son Ephraim received the blessing that should have gone to his first-born Manasseh. They all knew that if they had God’s blessing, they would have a special relationship with God. They could become holy.

The same applies to us in a much grander way. Our official Book of Blessings points out that “In Christ the blessing of God upon Abraham reached its complete fulfillment” (General Introduction 4). Christ fulfilled the three promises God made to Abram today: land, a kingdom, and a name. The Promised Land of Canaan has become the true Promised Land of Heaven where we can go. The Kingdom of David has become the Kingdom of God, which we are already part of in the Holy Catholic Church. The Holy Name of God used by the High Priest to bless the Chosen People has become the Holy Name of Jesus to bless his Chosen People with freedom from all sin. No better relationship with God is possible than the family bond we receive with Jesus Christ. God’s power and care are fully active and apparent in the blessings we receive in the name of Jesus.

We need to use this great privilege of blessings to receive the power and care God wants to give us. If we never ask, we will never receive. Through the Church, the Body of Christ, we have a wealth of blessings for every person, place, and thing so that everything in the world can be set apart for God, can become holy. The purpose of the Sacraments is to transform the world into heaven on earth. The purpose of blessings is to prepare people and the world to be transformed.

The patriarchs risked all to receive God’s blessing. We have far more powerful blessings at our disposal as Christians. This Lent, renew your dedication to receive blessings. We have Holy Water available in church. Take some with you, keep it in your home, and bless yourself daily with it. I blessed some of your homes and businesses last year. If a priest has not been over in a while, call or e-mail me so I can impart the blessing. Parents, you have the honor of blessing your children. I have included that prayer for you to take on the weekly printout of my homily at the doors. It is good to use in the morning before school or at night before bedtime. Of course, I can always bless crucifixes, rosaries, medals, and holy images that you use in prayer.

Blessed objects and places, like the church, assist our relationship with God because they are set apart for Him. God has always told His people to have recourse to blessings, and Jesus has made these blessings even more powerful by his cross and resurrection. This Lent, have recourse to all the blessings Christ offers you in and through his Church so your relationship with him can be strengthened, so you can become holy.

Rev. Eric Culler

[The parents may trace the sign of the cross on their children’s forehead; they then say the prayer of blessing]

Father,

Inexhaustible source of life and author of all good,

we bless you and we thank you

for brightening our communion of love by your gift of children.

Grant that our children (child) will find in the life of this family such inspiration

that they (he/she) will strive always for what is right and good

and one day, by your grace,

reach their (his/her) home in heaven.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.