Reading for the Day: Abraham

Today is the Feast Day of the Holy Family. I find it curious that the Gospel for yesterday and the Gospel for today are the same except for the inclusion of a few lines. So I'll just focus on the First Reading for today and continue with my theme of a God who is hard to accept, faith, and obedience.


The first reading today is about Abraham who is asked by God to do some things that were pretty tough to swallow. The most famous incident, of course, was when God asked him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. This sacrifice is best understood if we place it in context. According to Paul, Abraham was "past the normal age" (and his wife, Sarah was sterile) and before Isaac came along, he was childless and as such, his heir was the steward of his house. In response, God promised to give him descendants as numerous as the stars and the first descendant was Isaac. So Abraham had waited for a long time for that son and at some point, God asked Abraham to sacrifice that longed-for heir. Imagine the depth of Abraham's obedience when he did what he was asked to do.


Abraham's less famous act of obedience is described by Paul as follows: "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go". (emphasis mine)

Reading the passages of the past few days, I can't help but think how  astonishing these acts of obedience were on the part of Abraham, Mary, and Joseph.