“What’s your Isaac?” by Brian Flanagan
Second Sunday of Lent
I wonder what it would have been like if this week’s First Reading took place in the age of Twitter.
ISAAC @eyezik22 –
Yes! Going hiking with my dad. #mydadismyhero #mydadcouldbeatupyourdad
ABRAHAM @Abrahamburger –
Well, this is going to be an awkward day #whateveryousayGod #sacrifice
ISAAC @eyezik22 –
The view from this mountain top is so cool #ontopoftheworld
ISAAC @eyezik22 –
Whoops, my dad forgot to bring the lamb for the sacrifice. Maybe we can use a squirrel. Does that count? #worshipproblems
ABRAHAM @Abrahamburger –
Not sure I can go through with this. Here it goes… #trustingGod
ABRAHAM @Abrahamburger –
Wow, Lord, was that really necessary? #mysteriousways #closecall #heartattack
ANGEL @hellohalo777 –
Abraham is the man! God’s totally gonna bless this dude #awesome #faithful
It’s easy to get distracted when reading this passage from Genesis because we seemingly can’t relate to what’s going on — so let me translate for you. Earlier in the book of Genesis, God promises Abraham that he will have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the seashore. The problem is that he and his wife are both elderly and have never been able to have children. They trust God, and as time goes by they have Isaac. Isaac was to be “the son of the promise” through whom God would fulfill what he had told to Abraham.
Fast forward a bit, and God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. This would have made zero sense to Abraham (for lots of reasons), a big one being that this would directly conflict with God’s plan of fulfilling the promise through Isaac. Yet Abraham trusted that either God would protect Isaac, or if not that somehow the promise would still be fulfilled some other way and that Isaac was not the “son of the promise” after all.
Don’t get hung up on the human sacrifice thing right now – you could read a whole book explaining sacrifice in the ancient world and how it’s conceivable that a loving God would ask Abraham to do this – but we don’t have time to get into all of that here, so for now, the bottom line is this: Abraham thought he knew how God’s plan was going to play out (that he would have those countless descendants through Isaac) and he was totally on board with it and had his heart set on it. God, in order to test Abraham, wants him to trust – even if that means giving up the hopes and dreams he had for the promise to be fulfilled through Isaac. Abraham trusts that the Lord can still pull it off in a different way or even in a better way.
God often asks us to trust him and “test” our hopes and dreams by being willing to give them up. Sometimes we get them back (as Abraham did Isaac). Sometimes we don’t – but if we don’t, it’s because here’s a better way and a better plan that God has that we couldn’t have imagined up front.
What’s your Isaac? For me, the vocation to marriage and family life was an “Isaac”. I had always wanted to be married and have a family, and I was convinced that this was God’s plan for me one day. In college, God challenged me to offer up that “Isaac” and really take a look at whether he was calling me to the priesthood or religious life. I put the idea of married life on the proverbial altar of sacrifice, and was willing to let it go, trusting that God might have a different plan. I even lived with a religious order for a year, checking out their life. In the end, as he did for Abraham, he didn’t call me to go through with that sacrifice, and now in October I’m getting married with the knowledge that this really is God’s plan for my life.
What’s your Isaac? What are your hopes and dreams? Have you checked in with God about them? He may test you some day and ask you to be willing to offer them up in sacrifice, trusting that he has a better plan. Maybe it’s priesthood, maybe it’s where you’ll go to college, maybe it’s what to do this Friday night – but if you’re willing to offer up your hopes and dreams and do whatever it takes to do God’s will, the angel can say to you as he did to Abraham, “Now I know how devoted you are to God”. #awesome
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