GETTING ON THE ROAD

Reading the Bible, we meet people who have been, by their way of life, witnesses of God. They
are presented to us as models of faith. It's about Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Ruth ...
They are men and women who have lived in times very different from ours, and yet there is so-
mething in them that is valid for all times and places: their relationship with God and with their project.
We want to propose the possibility of walking with them: protagonists in their time. And as we
walk with them, we want to invite you to be also protagonist, today, of a new world, of a new society:
the world and the society that God wants, the Kingdom that Jesus has announced already present
among us.

A NOMAD
The first great character we find in the Bible is Abraham. Read the pages of the book of Genesis
12: 1 to 23:20. In the character of Abraham we are going to stop in this first reflection.
Abraham is a shepherd who goes from one part to another looking for pastures and water for his
cattle. He is a nomadic shepherd, restless and, sometimes, lonely. He is someone who searches in the
desert.
Abraham is a native of Ur of Chaldea and lived around 1900 BC. Each human being has its own
identity that is shared, in turn by the group to which it belongs. This identity is manifested in a series of
features and characteristics such as language, dress and eating, the way of celebrating life or death ...
Abraham also has an identity defined by the close relationship he has with his family, his land
and his gods. Abraham is not an abstract character, he is concrete, historical, and this makes him close
to us.

GETTING ON THE ROAD

Abraham is married to Sara, but he has no children. He is rich, but he lacks the most important
thing: the son who can guarantee him continuity after death.
Even today there are many ethnic groups for whom the main good is to have a male child that
continues family descent.
Abraham must be sad, and in his solitude, in the midst of nature, in a hollow of the day or in the
light of the moon, he would pray to his God and lament before Him.
And God, who is next to those who invoke him with simplicity of heart, took some time to reveal
himself to him, but in the end he did.
And how is it presented to you? In a disconcerting way: "Get out of your land, from among your
relatives and from your father's house."
God knows Abraham, he knows where he lives, what his worries are, his questions ... and preci-
sely because he knows he dares to trust him, proposing a bold plan.

A NEW HISTORY
But going out, getting on the road, means leaving something behind. Will Abraham have to give
up his own identity, the personal world that has gradually been built, to walk with God?
Abraham, in the secret of his soul, has asked God for a son. If I were a father, I would be happy.
But at seventy-five, what can you expect?
God, who breaks the schemata of our mind and defies the most perfect reasoning, bursts into
the life of Abraham, not to ask him to satisfy his immediate needs, but to ask him to renounce what he
has and to get on track.
From this moment, Abraham realizes that God is much greater than he had thought. Yes! He
thought that he was only the God of his people, who was there to protect them and fulfill their desires.
 GETTING ON THE ROAD
And yet, God is shown in the unknown and risky, in the horizon that is perceived and not touched.
What is Abraham's response? Leave the known, what gives security and, deep down, identity, and start
walking, with the only confidence of being accompanied by God. The risk is great. What will you find
tomorrow? Abraham trusts God.

The risk, based on the confidence that God guides our life, is the basic and fundamental
element of the new story that begins with Abraham: The future does not depend on you or me; the
future is in the hands of the One who loves us and knows us deeply.

A NEW FAMILY
The call to Abraham is accompanied by a promise: "I will make of you a great people ... and in
you all the families of the earth will be blessed." Abraham left his land and his father's house, to find
another land and another family much wider than the known one.
God calls Abraham to leave his little nest to open himself to universality. He calls him out of his
small project to meet God's plan.
Abraham finds a new identity. The identity that comes from uniting the peoples, from being
with their presence a sign of universal fraternity. His land will no longer be that of Ur de Chaldea, but
that which he finds on the road; and his family will not be reduced to Sara and Lot, he will expand with
the people he comes in contact with.

TRACKS FOR THE ROAD

Abraham is a very suggestive character for everyone who wants to live his life open to all huma-
nity. For your personal reflection, I suggest that you stop reading the written text, paying par-
ticular attention to the following:

1.Abrahán, on his way to find his full identity and the meaning of his life. Ask yourself what it is that
gives you identity as a person: Why do you live, fight, study or work ...?

2. How much does God enter your project? Do you have risk capacity?

3. Read Mark 3, 31-35 and Luke 9, 23-26, compare it with what you have read about Abraham.

Be scandalously utopian.
Revolve the society in which you live, starting with your own heart,
for your daily life. Be able to be poor, detached.
Despise the consumerism. You are able to work, yes, to work.
Study to know the world and its causes, all the worlds; and be also a bridge.
You, yes, can be bridges: bridges between the first and the third world,
between the first church and the third church.
And, if you feel called to certain more evangelical radicalisms, perhaps,
even the priesthood and mission, married or brotherhood, respond!
The Lord continues to call us.
Mission remains essential in the Church.
I believe that you, young people today,
are not less capable than John, or Moses, or Abraham, to respond to the Lord
who calls for the liberation of his people.
Pedro Casaldàliga for young people