The story begins with Abraham responding to the voice of God
calling his name with, “Here I am.” As they
head up the mountain, Isaac bearing the wood for the burnt offering, like
Jesus, bearing the wood on which he will be sacrificed, Abraham responds to his
son’s entreaty, “My father”, with another “Here I am.” Finally, the angel’s voice urgently says, “Abraham,
Abraham!” and he said, “Here I am.”
Right where he was supposed to be all the time, attentive and listening,
prepared to obey. Abraham didn’t
understand, but he knew these voices, he had heard them all before. God called him back in Genesis 12 and spoke
to him occasionally through those 25 years of wandering. The angels came to his
tent and told of the destruction of Sodom, and finally, he had heard the voice
of Isaac for whatever period of time they had been together. He was never too preoccupied to hear those
voices and respond, he was always present and accounted for in the moment, no
matter how pleasant or distressing the moment might be. Because his ears were always attentive, he
always heard. Attentiveness is our
problem.
Jesus will have to go it alone now. Peter wants to follow but Jesus tells him,
not now, later. Peter wants to be brave
and bold, but Jesus says, today is not the time for your bravery but for your
failure. Peter can’t hear such things
about himself and won’t until he happens to hear the cock crow and then he
hears what he has said these three times, in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy
only hours before. In this trek up the
mountain for crucifixion there will not be anyone but Jesus and the
Father. Like the first reading, the
young men will have to wait while the sacrifice is made. Today is not our day to shine but for God to
be glorified.
The prophets heard the Lord’s voice concerning the Messiah
and yet they didn’t fully understand what they were hearing. They didn’t see the horizon of His appearing
properly and yet the finally understood that what they saw wasn’t going to
happen in their lifetimes, just as Abraham saw the fulfillment of the promise
of great progeny and the land from a distance.
Peter says that Jesus “was foreknown before the foundation of the world
but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.” For this reason, the great love of God that
stretches back to before the world was founded, we are called to be holy as He
is holy. We, who bear His image, are
called to be like Him. Abraham was like
God in that he was prepared to sacrifice his son, he feared disobedience,
displeasing God more than he cared for the promise. He always knew what was most precious.
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