Thursday, July 6, 2023

Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 22:1b-19; Matthew 9:1-8)

 In the Shrine of St. Martin de Porres in Puerto Rico a compelling mural covers the back wall.  The mural portrays in abstract style the story related in today’s first reading. It features the angel and Abraham who is about to kill his son Isaac.  One hand of the angel points upward signaling a message from God and the other is raised palm up hand telling Abraham to stop.  The mural is said to symbolize the sacrifice of the Mass.

Thomas Aquinas calls Isaac a “type of Christ.” As Isaac was to be sacrificed to demonstrate Abraham’s faith in God, God himself allowed his own Son to be sacrificed to atone for the sins of the world.  His sacrifice on the cross was anticipated and prefigured at the meal Jesus shared with his disciples the night before he died.  It was God’s way of showing solidarity with humanity that became hopelessly lost because of sin.

The idea of God ordering a father to kill his son disturbs many people.  “Is not God violating His own natural law?” they ask.  But God did not allow the sacrifice of Isaac to take place.  God was acting as a judge testing Abraham’s fidelity, not as a tyrant seeking blood.  God loves His Son infinitely more than Abraham can love Isaac.  He loves all of us like He loves Christ.  For this reason He sent Christ to the world to die for our salvation.

Thursday, July 1, 2021

Dear Reader, if you receive these homilettes by email, you may find the service stopped in July.  As I understand an instruction from Google, its Burnfeeder program will no longer support the service.  You can always find the homilettes on the blog site: https://cbmdominicanpreacher.blogspot.com/ . Perhaps if you send me your email address, I could send the homilettes in a mass email.  You may send your email address to cmeleop@yahoo.com. When I ascertain that the service is no longer functioning, I will start sending them to you .

 

Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 22:1b-19; Matthew 9:1-8)

A few years ago Pope Francis expressed the need to change one of the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer.  He said that God would never “lead (anyone) into temptation.”  He felt that a better wording for the petition would be, “…do not let us fall into temptation.”  The pope’s idea was criticized.  Biblical scholars insisted that the Greek words really do say “lead us not into temptation.”  Traditionalists opposed the change just because it was a change.  In light of this controversy, it can be asked of today’s first reading:  Is not Abraham being led into temptation when he is told to sacrifice his son?

Abraham, however, may not believe that God is really going to allow him to go through with the human sacrifice.  When Isaac asks, “’…where is the sheep for the burnt offering?’” Abraham tells him that God will provide.  After all, Abraham knows that God has always shown Himself as just and beneficent.  In the end Abraham is proved correct.  God has only tested him to see if he is obedient.

God may test us as well.  He may call a child to Himself which would cause the child’s parents extreme distress.  The parents may want to curse God and turn bitter toward their neighbors. We pray that this never happens to us.  We pray every day, “Do not lead us into temptation.” 

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 22:1b-19; Matthew 9:1-8)

Mass murderers are regularly reported as hearing voices.  They are directed by what they often explain as a divine command to commit an atrocity.  Abraham seems to hear such a dark order in today’s first reading. 

The passage, sometimes called by its Hebrew name Akeda meaning binding, challenges interpreters.  They rightly ask, “How could a just God suggest to anyone that he kill his son as a sacrifice?”  Can God really be so capricious or, more pointedly, so cruel.  No, such a conception contradicts what God has revealed about Himself.  But humans are subject to such vagaries of will.  The story may be better understood in a way that contrasts to what is written.  Rather than God directing Abraham to slaughter Isaac, Abraham may be superimposing on God an aberrant voice within him telling him to commit the outrage.  Drama is taking place within Abraham – will he accept as God’s will the voice that tells him to kill Isaac or the natural order that forbids all human sacrifice?  What may well be God’s true voice then speaks up.  Abraham clearly hears that he is not to kill his son, but to offer a sacrifice on his behalf.

People often enough claim to hear the voice of God within them.  They are not to be dismissed as demented or foolish.  But they should test that voice by comparing it with God’s will as seen in the natural law and in revelation.  If there is an aberration between the two, they must concede to what is known in the latter category.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 22:1b-19; Matthew 9:1-8)

In considering the story of Abraham being called to slay his beloved son Isaac, we cannot help but being horrified by the proposal.  It seems preposterous for God to suggest that anyone take an innocent life because He has written on our hearts an injunction against it.  Natural law tells us that murder is wrong and that murdering one’s own offspring is especially abominable.  We accept the story as revelation but are forced to question, not unlike those who ponder how God might permit a tsunami killing hundreds of thousands of people or a genocidal regime taking a ten times that number, divine benevolence.

Of course, the text says from the beginning that God is testing Abraham.  Tests are by nature hypothetical.  They do not mean everything they say.  In true or false tests, for example, not every statement of the teacher is true.  Does this mean that she lies?  Tests, it should be acknowledged, are at least as much a stimulus to learning as they are a tool of evaluation.  In fact, in the long run students are more likely to recall a wrong answer on a test than a correct one. 

The crucial lesson in Abraham’s test is that he and by extension we must subordinate ourselves to God’s will.  We are not the most important persons even, in our own small universe; He is.  If Abraham is ever to father a truly great nation, he and his descendants must learn that national interest does not trump justice, that one’s leisure should not take preclude the obligation to worship, and that one’s concern for family is not a reason for denying the poor outside one’s door.  Question God’s reasons if we must, but always render Him sovereignty over our lives!

Homilette for Thursday, July 2, 2009

Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 22:1b-19; Matthew 9:1-8)

In considering the story of Abraham being called to slay his beloved son Isaac, we cannot help but being horrified by the proposal. It seems preposterous for God to suggest that anyone take an innocent life because He has written on our hearts an injunction against it. Natural law tells us that murder is wrong and therefore murdering one’s own offspring is especially abominable. We accept the story as revelation but are forced to question, not unlike those who ponder how God might permit a tsunami killing hundreds of thousands of people or a dictatorial regime taking a hundred times that number, the benevolence of such a God.

Of course, the text says from the beginning that God is testing Abraham. Tests are by nature hypothetical. They do not mean everything they say. In true or false tests, for example, not every statement of the tester is true. Does this mean that she lies? Tests, we should acknowledge, are at least as much a stimulus to learning as they are a tool of evaluation. In fact, in the long run we are probably more likely to recall a wrong answer on a test than a correct one.

The crucial lesson in Abraham’s test is that he, and by extension we, must subordinate ourselves completely to God. We are not the most important person even, in our own small universe; He is. If Abraham is ever to father a truly great nation, he and his descendants must learn that national interest does not trump justice, that one’s leisure should not take preclude the obligation to worship, and that one’s concern for family is not a reason for denying the poor outside one’s door. Question God’s reasons if we must, but always render Him sovereignty over our lives!