Word to the Wise
Thursday, June 30, 2011 - Thursday in the 13th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gen 22:1b-19 and Matt 9:1-8,1004]God put Abraham to the test. He called to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. Then God said: "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a burnt offering on a height that I will point out to you....."
The theologian of story-telling, Fr. John Shea, is quoted as saying, "All stories are true. Some of them even happen!" The story of God's "test" of Abraham is well crafted and has a wonderful element of suspense, no mater how often we read it. Whether it really "happened" doesn't matter nor does it matter that God has no intention of letting Abraham kill Isaac (who, after all, is the one who will fulfill God's promise to make Abraham the "father of many nations.") The real point is the choice between God's command and Abraham's love for his son, Isaac. The story has generated enormous amounts of commentary over many centuries of telling. Hard choices have a way of making for good story-telling.
I think the "power" of this story comes in no small part from our own identification with "hard choices." It is not always a matter of choosing between love of God and love of neighbor - a very rare choice if it should happen. The real matter may be in our own faith and integrity. We can debate about Abraham's choice all we want. This story shows him to be consistent with the first choice he made, which was to leave his native land and go to a land which God would show him. When one takes a stance in faith, there will always be someone else who will test that stance by saying, "What if.......?" This story may have arisen as a result of such a question. Since human (especially child) sacrifice is consistently condemned in the Old Testament, the choice in the story is an extreme one. The story makes its point without the terrible consequences. Abraham's faith and integrity are what win the day. Another "what if....?" story might be told if Abraham had replied, "I will not do it........!"
The time inevitably comes when we all make hard choices about loved ones, or even about ourselves. What will be our own resources to make those choices? Abraham showed that his faith and integrity was strong and this is what enabled him to go forward with terrible determination. What do WE do when faced with similarly difficult choices? AMEN