The Second Sunday of Lent -- Abraham our Father in Faith

On Thursday I was a part of performance of Benjamin Britten’s incredible work, War Requiem, at the University of Minnesota.  Composed for the 1962 dedication of the newly rebuilt Coventry Cathedral which was destroyed during World War II, it is a powerful reflection on war and faith.   The texts of the traditional Requiem Mass are interspersed with poetry by Wilfred Owen, a young poet who was killed in World War I.  During the Libera Me movement, Britten sets a poem which turns the story of Abraham and Isaac on its head.  It struck me, as I listened, that this poem is also a good metaphor for our reflection this Lent.  All too often, God provides us with every means that we need to be faithful and yet we turn our back on the gift.  We prefer to go our own way, to follow our own counsel.  Lent encourages us to listen to God and to take advantage of the graces that the Lord is pouring out on us to help us be faithful and holy.  Here is Owen’s poem. 

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets and trenched there,
And streched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! and angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.But the old man would not so,
but slew his son, -
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.