Today, we hear the story of God asking
Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. As
I mentioned in a daily homily last week, some of the readings from the Old
Testament in particular are not easy to understand. We have to wrestle with the meanings and
understandings we are to talk away from these stories. We might ask: How would a God of love and
mercy do something like this? How could
Abraham have such total and complete trust in God. And think of Isaac looking up at his
Father. What could have been going
through his mind?
God is full of love and mercy. That is one of the truths of God that is at
the foundation of what we believe as Christians. Yet God also sacrificed his son to be our
redeemer and savior. I think of some of
the rough experiences I have had in life, how at the end of my missionary term
in Ecuador, I was amazed that I survived it and was still in one piece! Those experiences have given me the
compassion and tenacity I have needed to follow my vocation as a priest, that’s
for sure. Jesus, in his passion and journey
to the cross, has united his sufferings to the suffering we go through in
life. He can walk with us and show us
love, mercy, and compassion for what we are going through. The cross is not an event that stands in
isolation in our faith. With the cross,
there is also resurrection, there is also eternal life. One cannot exist without the others. Perhaps
the story of Abraham and Isaac foreshadows the story of God the Father and his
beloved son.
As I thought about the story of Abraham
and Isaac, the suscipe of St Ignatius of Loyola came to mind:
Take,
Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my
memory, my understanding,
and my
entire will.
All I
have and call my own.
You have
given all to me.
To you,
Lord, I return it.
Everything
is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me
only your love and your grace,
that is
enough for me.
Your
love and your grace – that is enough for me.
As we
think of sacrifice today and the sacrifice that was asked of Abraham, may we
ask ourselves what sacrifices we are willing to make for our faith, especially
in light of Fortnight for Freedom we are commemorating in our Church.
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