Trusting, Believing and Following the Lord to Freedom

In today's first reading, Gen 22: 1b-19,  God challenges Abraham's distorted thinking that he had to sacrifice the first fruits of his offspring to God.  Believing this cultural tradition, Abraham takes his son Isaac to a place where he intends to sacrifice him to the Lord. As Abraham approaches the place of sacrifice, he places wood on his son's back and continues the journey, leaving his servants behind at that point.  Isaac says to his father:  "Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?"  Abraham replies:  "God himself will provide the sheep for the burnt offering."  And God does so, stopping Abraham from harming his son at the very point at which he is about to kill him!  God sends a messenger from heaven who calls out:  "Abraham, Abraham!...Do not lay your hand on the boy...Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God,  since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."  Abraham looks about and sees a ram caught by his horns in a thicket!

What do we learn about God from this passage? 

• That God knows our thoughts even before we do!
• That God provides for our needs
• That God tests our faith in many ways
• That God uses even our distorted thinking to reveal Himself and His will for us
• That God will and can stop us from engaging in wrongdoing
• That God challenges our distortions and guides us to the truth
• That God frees us from the power of Satan

Based on this passage from Genesis 22: 1b-19, how am I, are you, to live our lives?

• Trusting the in Lord, as Abraham did
• Realizing that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow
• Following God's way, being cautious of the ego's power to mislead us into doing what is contrary to God's will, though what we are contemplating looks like the right thing to do
• Remembering that God will provide for all our needs and that the sacrifice God desires of us is the one we remember during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Jesus' life, suffering, death and resurrection as well as our own

Discernment: Learning to Listen to "the Angels" God sends as Guiding Messengers

Discernment:  Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Shortly after Jesus’ birth and after the Magi left to return to their perspective countries, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and warned him to make an immediate departure in the middle of the night for the land of Egypt. Herod would be searching for the child Jesus to kill him.  When in Egypt and those who wanted to kill Him had in fact themselves died, an angel again appeared to Joseph instructing him to return to Nazareth.  A third time, again in a dream, Joseph is counseled by an angel concerning the  place in Judea  to settle that would be best for the Holy Family.

Joseph is alert to heavenly messages. He listens to the good spirits guiding him as foster father of Jesus.  All along, Joseph is fulfilling the prophesies concerning Jesus, God's plan for his life as our Messiah.

As with the Holy Family, God has a plan for your life as well. If you follow the promptings of “the angels,” the messengers of the Lord speaking to you, guiding you to making right choices, you, too, will be growing in the skill of discernment.  As with Joseph, so, too, with you: you are being guided day and night with warnings and instructions. Do you heed God’s guiding  voice? Do you see God’s guiding hand? Do you trust your "dreams”? Joseph did!  You can, too!

May you develop the kind of intimacy with God that Joseph had developed  and that enabled him to hear God's voice, trust God's messengers that He sends to you in your dreams.

Discernment: From the Perspective of the Annunciation

Discerning God’s Plan: Today we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation, the angel announces to Mary that she has been chosen by God to be the mother of the Son of God.  Mary, hearing of God’s plan, says:  “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your  word.”  She surrenders her will to the will of God at the risk of losing her own life. “Yes” to God’s will involves a letting go of my will, a dying to my will, an acceptance of the pain involved in dying. It involves taking risks, not knowing the consequences.   When “an angel of the Lord” announces God’s plan for you, what is your response? Are you willing, as Mary was, to have it done to you according to God’s word, or, like Adam and Eve, do we follow our own will and set God’s aside?  “Not now, Lord. I can’t leave what I am doing? I have no idea where my “yes” to your call will take me? Will I ever see home again? Will I be able to visit my friends? Will I be able to have my own cell phone? What will happen to the home I own? The car I own?

The leap of faith is a difficult leap! With your hand in the hand of the Lord, however, it is not too wide from “here” to “there.”  You will make it because God is in charge, God leads, God shows the way, God lights the dark, God strengthens the weak!

Discernment: Holding Nothing Back

DISCERNMENT

 

Many times we vocation directors ask you to look at the pros and cons of each lifestyle that you are considering. Doing so may clarify the Lord’s will for you.  There are times, however, when looking at pros and cons is merely a way to avoid what one really knows God is asking. I need to look at whether I am truly seeking God’s will or using pros and cons to assert my own will upon God, a way of arguing to avoid taking the leap of faith required of us as disciples.  Sometimes we simply have to follow the Lord’s lead without even knowing where it will lead, such as Abraham did. “Leave your country, your kindred and your father’s house for a country which I shall show you; and I shall make you a great nation, I shall bless you and make your name famous; you are to be a blessing!” 

 

Are you afraid of leaving your “father’s house?” Are you afraid you will have to go “to a country which…[God] shall show you” through your future superiors?  What holds you back from following God’s command, trusting God’s call, heeding His invitation?