When Abraham's faith failed

Today's Mass readings work together powerfully to call us to profound faith, but they do it in a rather
sideways manner. In fact, the first reading, from the Book of Genesis, is practically the reverse of yesterday's first reading--and if not for the utter faithfulness of God, would seem, in the light of today's Gospel, to bode ill for Abram.

Sarai brings Hagar to Abram, determined
to  have an heir, one way or the other.
Matthias Stom; Wikimedia.

Yesterday, Abram "believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness" (words that will be fundamental to Paul--and to fundamentalists!). God had made an incredible promise, and backed that promise up with a covenant, and Abram knew that what God promised IS, even if it is as invisible to us as the stars are during the daylight. This is the faith that made Abraham the "father of all who believe" (Paul's words) and "our father in faith" (the Liturgy's words).

In the Gospel today, Jesus sums up the Sermon on the Mount by telling his disciples that "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock." In today's reading, though....well, it was not Abraham's finest moment. Instead of relying on the words of God's promise, Abram today listened and acted on Sarai's words. The fear and anxiety Abram and Sarai must have experienced over their situation, the need to "do something" to "make it go away" once and for all, caused Abram and Sarai both to fall short in their relationship with God as they tried to force a solution that would resolve in a manageable timeframe and on their own terms.

I certainly find myself falling into the same kind of trap. It reminds me of that line in The Hound of Heaven where the soul "fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears..." (This is especially the case if I don't particularly like the direction I think I see things going... O Lord, increase my faith!)

This week I have seen pious, Mass-going, Rosary-praying Catholics spew forth some of the most cold-hearted, appalling comments ever about current social issues. I won't even repeat them. The remarks are as bad as any disparaging thing pro-abortion radicals say about unborn life. In fact, the type of expressions are interchangeable.

How have these hostile, cruel, inhuman convictions found a home in a Catholic heart? I believe that the way we use media has a powerful part to play in this. In fact, because of the stereotyped language in the harshest comments, I am convinced of it. Today there are many voices like that of Sarai. Their insinuations can enter into the fabric of people's thoughts and compromise their free and ardent response to the Word of God even when it is spoken as clear as day through the teachings of the Church, including the applications of the Gospel to urgent moral issues.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." 

Today's Gospel contains a serious warning, but it comes to us on the vigil of the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is an appeal of love: "If you cannot even bring your words of prayer and your words about society into communion with each other, you can still bring that conflict to Me."

• What causes me to pull back from the clear, concrete demands of Gospel, from "the will of the Father in heaven" that is especially detailed in Matthew 25 (vv 31-46)?
• To what degree does anxiety and my own fear for the future color my ability to see other human beings and view moral issues with the eyes and mind of Christ? 
• Whom do I look to as a reliable guide and interpreter when it comes to matters of good and evil, right and wrong, and the common good? Are their principles consistent with those given in the Catechism of the Catholic Church?

Suggestion
For a few days, keep a notebook handy to write down the key words that your most trusted radio and TV commentators use the most often. Next week, revisit the word list. Circle the words that impart a sense of calm or confidence. Underline the words that, just upon reading them, cause you to experience dread, anger, or anxiety. Now tally up the two kinds of words. What tendency dominates? What can you do about that?

If you simply find a lot of words, both uplifting and wrenching, perhaps you simply need to cut back on talk media in general. That can allow more space for the Word of God to "abide" and convince us, deep down and for good, of God's dependability. "Heaven and earth will pass away," and everything on the face of the earth, "but My Word will not pass away" (Lk 21:33).

Prayer for a Renewed Heart

by St Claude de la Colombière

O God, what will You do to conquer

Sacred Heart (detail), by Joseph Fanelli

the fearful hardness of our hearts?

Lord, You must give us new hearts,
tender hearts, sensitive hearts,
to replace hearts that are made of marble and of bronze.

You must give us Your own Heart, Jesus.

Come, lovable Heart of Jesus.
Place Your Heart deep in the center of our hearts
and enkindle in each heart a flame of love
as strong, as great, as the sum of all the reasons
that I have for loving You, my God.

O holy Heart of Jesus, dwell hidden in my heart,
so that I may live only in You and only for You,
so that, in the end, I may live with You eternally in heaven.

Amen.