The first reading of the Mass today (16 March 2014) is the promise made by God to Abraham. Chapter 12 of Genesis starts with God’s
promise, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the
land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless
you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those
who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen 12:1-3).”
God’s promise to Abraham is
unconditional. Unlike His covenant made through Moses to the Israelites on
Mount Sinai, there are no strings attached to the promise. Nevertheless, the
promise requires a great trust of Abraham in God. Abraham was asked to leave
his home in Ur of the Chaldees to an unknown place to him – the land that God
will show him. He was not a young man, already 75 years’ old. He was rich; he
had his possessions and slaves and there was no compelling reason for him to
leave his home for an unknown place directed by God. But God’s promise is also attached
with a big prize: a great nation, a great name, and through him all the
families of the earth will be blessed. When he left his home, he had no child
to succeed him, not to mention to become a great nation and a great name
honored by all the earth.
What Abraham had is a complete trust in
God. He settled in the land of Canaan after a long journey, still without an
heir. God promised him again and again, “Look toward heaven and count the
stars, if you are able to count them … So shall your descendants be (Gen 15:5).” “And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where
you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I
will be their God (Gen 17:8).” Abraham believed in God. His wife, Sarah
eventually bore him a child when he was 100. It seems that God has fulfilled
His promise. But this is not the end of the story. God gave Abraham a stern
test to offer his beloved son Isaac as a burnt offering to Him. Abraham did not
hesitate to offer his son. He was completely obedient to God and trust that
“The Lord will provide”. Indeed Abraham passed the test and his son was saved.
The Lord said to him, “Because you have done this, and have not withheld your
son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as
numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore (Gen 22:16-17).”
The blessings of God to Abraham have
been realized. His descendants, the 12 tribes of Israel, became God’s chosen
people in the Old Testament. They occupied the Promised Land for centuries.
More so, Abraham’s name is great, not only that he is a patriarch of the
Israelites, he is also a prophet in Islam and to we Christians, he is our
father of faith, “being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had
promised. Therefore his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness (Rom 4:21-22).” In this way, God’s promise “in you all the families of the earth shall
be blessed” is also fulfilled. For Christians, “in you” refers to the faith in God
that Abraham exhibited, and in the context of the New Testament, the faith in
God through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ.
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