Thursday of the
Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Genesis 2:1b-19; Matthew 9:1-8)
Today’s first reading is a hallmark of the Bible and of
Western Civilization. In it God tests Abraham
by telling him to kill the son he had longed for. Abraham does not delay in complying and stops
only when God sends a contravening order. By his obedience, Abraham shows himself a worthy
beneficiary of God’s awesome blessing.
He can be a true father to many nations.
As the United States celebrates its foundation today, it
faces a test similar to Abraham’s. The
premise for its freedom from England was based on natural law. As its founders proclaimed on July 4, 1776, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.” The test is whether the
nation will continue to pursue freedom in accord with God’s will as given in
human nature. The alternative path on
which the nation is headed is to dally in invented freedoms like abortion and
homosexual marriage.
We come together today to
implore the risen Lord present in our midst.
We ask him to straighten the distorted path the United States has taken
in recent years. We pray that a nation
so well-endowed with resources may not deviate from the way of freedom upon
which its founders set it.
