urgent prayer request plus homily by Fr. Michael Sisco, CFP Visitor

[Confraternity of Penitents]

Blessings and all good, fellow penitents, friends, inquirers, affiliates, and associates of the Confraternity of Penitents,

We just received an urgent prayer request from Jamie at the prolife pregnancy center. Please pray for Alrick who has several children, is pregnant, and called about having an abortion. Jamie talked to her for a half hour and offered her all the resources the center has for her. Please pray that Alrick choose life for her child.

Thank you for your prayers. And may God reward you.

 

We also ask prayers for the Confraternity of Penitents retreat, reunion, and conference this Wednesday July 8 through Sunday July 12. The theme will be the Eucharist. The retreat is held at Christ the King Seminary, East Aurora NY and cost is $219 for the entire time from 5 pm Wed. through breakfast Sunday. There are a few rooms left so, if you are interested in attending at the last minute, please call Madeline and Jim Nugent at 401-849-5421. The schedule is posted on this link:  http://penitents.org/events.html  Because of the retreat, the CFP Holy Angels Gift Shop will mail out orders tomorrow (July 7) by noon EST and then not until Tuesday, July 14 (the Gift Shop items will be at the retreat). Also, the CFP will not be answering emails from noon tomorrow (July 7) until Tuesday, July 14. Thank you for your patience and your prayers.

 

We would like to share the latest homily by Fr. Michael Sisco, CFP Visitor. It is on this link http://www.penitents.org/SiscoGenesis22.htm

and we reproduce it below.

 

God put Abraham to the test. He called to him, "Abraham!"

"Here I am," he replied.

 

Then God said: "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a burnt offering on a height that I will point out to you."

 

Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey, took with him his son Isaac, and two of his servants as well, and with the wood that he had cut for the burnt offering, set out for the place of which God had told him.

 

On the third day Abraham got sight of the place from afar. Then he said to his servants: "Both of you stay here with the donkey, while the boy and I go on over yonder. We will worship and then come back to you."

 

Thereupon Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac's shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two walked on together, Isaac spoke to his father Abraham: "Father!" he said.

 

"Yes, son," he replied.

 

Isaac continued, "Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?"

 

"Son," Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the sheep for the burnt offering." Then the two continued going forward.

 

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac, and put him on top of the wood on the altar. Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the LORD's messenger called to him from heaven, "Abraham, Abraham!"

 

"Here I am," he answered.

 

"Do not lay your hand on the boy," said the messenger. "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."

 

As Abraham looked about, he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the site Yahweh-yireh; hence people now say, "On the mountain the LORD will see."

 

Again the LORD's messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said: "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son, I will bless you abundantly and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing all this because you obeyed my command."

 

Abraham then returned to his servants, and they set out together for Beer-sheba, where Abraham made his home. (Genesis 22: 1b-19)

 

 

Faith is the ability to do what we normally wouldn’t do, because we trust in the Providence of God. We talk about having faith. Keeping the faith. Spreading the faith. What do we mean by all of this? We mean that faith dictates our actions or our inactions. Sometimes faith puts the brakes on something we want to do. For example, someone hurts me or someone I love, and my first reaction is to seek vengeance, but my faith restrains me.

 

Abraham is called our Father in faith, because of what we see in the book of Genesis. God calls Abraham to sacrifice his only beloved son. Now our first gut reaction to this is anger. Why would a loving God demand such a thing of Abraham? Even knowing that God is going to stop Abraham from completing this act, we still get angry, because it seems like such a cruel thing to do to Abraham.

 

There are many reasons for this. First, Abraham has shown his continual lack of faith throughout this story. Initially, when God tells Abraham to leave his Father’s home, and set out on his own because God was going to build a nation out of his descendants, yes, Abraham responds in faith, but he also has his moments of failure. When Abraham takes matters into his own hands and has a child with Sarah’s teenage slave girl; God has to fix the mess. When they go to Egypt, and Abraham tells Pharaoh that Sarah is his sister, not his wife, so Pharaoh takes Sarah as his wife; God has to fix the mess. So Abraham, like most of us, has his victories and defeats. So this episode is first to test Abraham’s faith. Does he have the faith now, to do what he normally would not do, because of his trust in Divine Providence?

 

Secondly, what is God asking Abraham to sacrifice? His only son. God is asking Abraham to sacrifice the one thing that is dearest to him above every other thing. Would we trust God with that? Are we willing to surrender that which is most dear to us, and trust the Lord?

 

Third, the Lord is giving Abraham a preview of how much he loves his people, because God is going to give up His only beloved son to death, and this time, the Father won’t stop the sacrifice.

 

Sacrificing children was common in the ancient world. So when God makes this request of Abraham, it wouldn’t have seemed that unusual, and Abraham probably thought to himself, “Yup, this is payback for all the times I messed up.” But God initiates this sacrifice precisely so he can stop it, so he can show Abraham, “Hey, I’m not like the other gods you’ve experienced so far. I’m totally different.”

 

So it’s necessary for Abraham to undergo this situation, not just to test his faith, but to strengthen it, so he can see what kind of a God he’s committing himself to through the covenant.

 

And that’s where faith should lead us as well. Yes, faith is the ability to do what we would not normally do because of our trust in Divine Providence. But through those actions and inactions, faith should also be revealing to us what kind of God we’re in this covenant relationship with. Our living faith, our faith professed in deed and thought as well as in word, should be leading us to grow in our knowledge of God. Because every time we practice our faith, the Lord shows us just a little more of who he is and what he does.

 

And blessed by God, forever .

Father Michael Anthony Sisco

Visitor, Confraternity of Penitents