Tag: <span>Abraham</span>

June 23, 2021June 22, 2021

Heroes

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

The ideal followers of the pagan gods in ancient Roman and Greek civilizations were the great, strong heroes–the mighty warriors, who gained victory for their people.

As Christians, without perhaps realizing it, sometimes strive to emulate these sorts of heroes in our service of God. We strive to be great protectors as fathers, the wisest and most caring of mothers, great communicators of the truth on social media, reliable rocks to our friends.

By contrast, Abram won God’s favor in another way in today’s first reading, after God had made him a great promise: “Abram put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.”

As Heb. 11:8-12 tells us, Abram found favor of the Lord, not by doing Him service, but by trusting in His promise.

When we trust in God’s providential promise, a feat much harder than it sounds, we become the tree that bears great fruit described in today’s gospel.

Trust turns us into the hero of our neighbor that we cannot become by our own effort, because we cease fretting for our own welfare, and gain the perspective that opens our eyes to others’ needs.

Faith and trust alone turn us into spiritual giants, worthy of the name of Christians.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to do whatever it takes, even allowing for great trials in your life if it is His will, to convey to you the gift of strong, invincible faith and trust.

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February 28, 2021February 28, 2021

The Ram of Sacrifice

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Abraham’s obedience and trust in God know no equal in any creature, except in the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Abraham was ordered to sacrifice his son Isaac–to slaughter him as an offering. Abraham was so absolute in his trust in God, the Creator and definer of all good, that he did not hesitate to obey. Unlike Adam and Eve, he did not pass God’s command through the filter of what seemed best for him. God’s commands themselves were the only filter; all else was a relative good.

We must not imagine that this was a piece of cake for Abraham, that he did not use his mind. He could not see the other side of this. He had no idea how God could possibly bring good out of such a command. The entire rest of his life appeared dark as he ascended the mountain with Isaac.

But, he trusted.

The resonance of his trust in history is incalculable. The Lord predicts to him in the first reading the distant reality of his descendants–the entire nation of Israel–defeating the Canaanites to enter and take possession of the promised land. His descendants will be countless, and will include Jesus Himself, the Son of God–and by extension, in faith, all those who follow Jesus.

All because he trusted, and obeyed.

The Blessed Virgin Mary and Abraham are so similar in this–Mary too, because of her faith and trust under the Cross of her Son, causes resounding impact down through history. She wins a massive increase in the application through the ages of Christ’s infinitely powerful sacrifice in the hearts of believers and non-believers alike. How many conversions from faithlessness, godlessness, and despair are directly attributable to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary?

And what about your obedience to God? Are you ready to make it absolute, that aspect of your life to which all other goods are relative? If so, the resonance of your life will be powerful like Abraham’s and Mary’s, with profound effect for the good of your loved ones and far, far beyond.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to give you obedience like His, like His mother’s, like Abraham’s. Ask Him to help you to understand how obedience was the secret of the power of His saving act, and is the secret of the power of the Christian. And ask Him to fill you with such trusting love for God, that you will obey His will no matter what the cost.

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January 30, 2021January 20, 2021

Tempest-Tossed

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

The first reading praises the faith of Abraham and puts it in context, the context of coming salvation. Regarding eternal salvation in Christ, the reading says of Abraham and his descendants, “They did not receive what had been promised but saw it and greeted it from afar and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth, for those who speak thus show that they are seeking a homeland.”

And well might the faith of Abraham be praised. Imagine God coming to you and telling you, like Him, to sacrifice your child. You prepare to do so, not out of servile submission to a God you fear because you consider Him brutal and bloody, but out of such faith in His goodness, that you know His plan to be good in spite of the apparent evil confronting you. It is possible that there is no faith greater than that of Abraham in the history of mankind, save perhaps that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who watched her Son slaughtered on Calvary.

In reality, though, we are all called to walk in a faith similar to Abraham’s as we sojourn through this world. The evil around us continually threatens to block the sun of God’s promise of eternal happiness. It continually threatens to block out the light of the reality of a loving God.

And, often enough, what happened to the disciples in today’s gospel likewise happens to us. The boat of our life is tossed by trials and tribulations that loom authentically threatening; stresses real, and challenges seemingly insurmountable. In all of this, Abraham’s ancient example, so eloquently cited in Hebrews, shines a beacon of light. Even as the Lord appears to sleep in the stern, the welfare of our little boat is in His capable hands; it is His course that it follows through the deep.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: The Gospel admonishes us not to give in to our worries and cares; to trust with unwavering faith. In a context of faith and trust, our stresses and worries are an ideal gift to serve up on a platter to our God, even at the height of their effect. Think of the burdens you are bearing right now. Don’t ask Jesus to eliminate them. Offer them to Him generously, in union with His cross, in union with the sufferings of Our Lady under that cross, for the spiritual welfare of many.

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