I remember during my seminary years that on occasion I had the unfortunate task of
having to read certain modern contemporary biblical scholars who made the absurd
assertions that our Lord in the Gospels never claims to be God. Sort of this very strange,
materialistic sort of counting of words because our Lord never says,
I am God in those exact terms. But our Lord on many occasions does identify himself very clearly
with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And today's Gospel is, of course, a perfect example
of this, where the result of our Lord's speech to the Jews is that they pick up stones to throw at
him.
Because in their minds that were not open to the truth, they accused him of blasphemy because he
said before Abraham was, I am. And so throughout this passage today, our Lord is asserting his
divinity before the Jews and that he has even more authority than Abraham in whom they put all their
trust.
And they had this very interesting passage.
This kind of confidence in their physical relationship to Abraham, the genealogical relationship to the
father of their nation. And yet, as we hear in the first reading today from the book of Genesis,
God established a covenant with Abraham. And yes, he promised him progeny. But it was not a covenant.
It was a covenant. It was a covenant. It was a covenant. It was a covenant. It was a covenant.
It was a covenant. It was a covenant. It was a covenant. It was a covenant. It was a covenant. It was a covenant.
God would fulfill his promises, but there were expectations on the part of Abraham and his people.
On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.
And so when St. Paul in his letters, in the letter to the Hebrew, talks about Abraham as the father of the nation of Israel,
he also speaks about Abraham as the father of all those who follow.
God in the spirit of faith. Our Lord in today's reading from Genesis promised that the land that
he had given to Abraham would be their permanent possession, he and his people and all of his
descendants, the land of Canaan. But we're told in the letter to the Hebrews that Abraham dwelt
in the promised land in tents, he and his people in tents, because they were looking forward
to a city whose foundation was not made by man, but made by God. So even Abraham realized
that the ultimate fulfillment of the promise that had been given him was not fulfilled
in this life. He looked forward to heaven. And that for Abraham was also a matter of faith.
He lived in the promised land. He lived in the promised land. He lived in the promised land.
But he was looking forward to something which was not yet fulfilled. And it was his willingness
to trust God and believe in him that was credit to him as righteousness. Ultimately, the great
sign of Abraham's faith is, of course, his willingness to put Isaac to death at the word
of God, because he believed that God would raise him from the dead. And so it is not so much the
physical relationship with Abraham that should be the most important thing. It is the physical
relationship with Abraham that should be the source of confidence for those who follow God,
but rather that they are, in the words of St. Paul, children of Abraham in the matter of faith.
And this is what, of course, our Lord was criticizing his listeners for in today's gospel,
criticizing them because they put so much trust in their physical relationship
and so little stock in the necessity of having faith.
Which they had little to none. In fact, our Lord criticizes them again because they claim to be
having God as their father. And yet he says, you don't even know him. And on the contrary,
I know him. And if I told you I didn't, I would be a liar like you. Because they were lying
by saying they knew God. And our Lord would be lying if he said he did not know him and could
not reveal him.
And so in this age of secularism and a lack of faith, sometimes we also fail to exercise our
faith by living at the standard that God has set for us. You know, there are many people that are
living blind lives because they do not believe and sometimes because they've never had the truth
preached to them. But for those who have been prepared to believe and who do not believe,
we are called to live at a higher standard. Our Lord expected his people to believe in him
because they had been prepared to believe. And very often it was exactly the contrary that was
true. It was the Gentiles who believed. It was the prostitutes and tax collectors who believed
and the teachers of the law did not. And that was not credited to them as justice.
But as wickedness. So we who say we believe and do believe what the church teaches need to
accept the fullness of our faith, which in the context of this Passion Tide is our willingness to
walk with Jesus to Calvary and to accompany him along the way, the whole way, to carry our cross,
and to do it in company with the Lord. Not to be scandalized by the cross as the Jews were,
not to seek a greater wisdom than the cross as the gentiles did, not to run from it as many of the
apostles did, but to go there with the Blessed Mother and Saint John, Our Lady is the new Abraham,
whose relationship to the Lord was
closer than any human relationship could even be conceived to be because she was his mother.
But the real basis of that relationship was the fact that she heard the word of God and put it
into practice, that she believed everything that the Lord said and embraced it wholeheartedly,
even to the cross, even at the foot of the cross. May we have Abraham as our father,
Mary as our mother, and God as our father, because we have heard God's word through Christ Jesus,
put it into practice, and walked with him on the road to Calvary.
May we have Abraham as our father, Mary as our mother, and God as our father, because we have heard God's word through Christ Jesus,
because we have heard God's word through Christ Jesus,