ABRAHAM, OUR FATHER IN FAITH

 

ABRAHAM, OUR FATHER IN FAITH

The Old Testament reading for Mass today relates part of the mysterious encounter of Abraham with three “visitors” as he sat at the entrance of his tent in Mamre on a hot afternoon.  Abraham shows them hospitality and prepares a meal for them.  After they eat, one of them says to Abraham that his wife Sarah will bear a son, although she is beyond child-bearing years.  God keeps the promise he made to Abraham when he called him to leave his own country and kindred to wander in a land he did not know.  And I will make of you a great nation…and by you all the families of the earth will bless themselves (Gen 12:2-3).

Who were these three men?  Christian iconography sees in them the Persons of the Holy Trinity.  This encounter is a theophany, an appearance of God in the Old Testament.  Interestingly, in the original Hebrew language the three men are sometimes addressed in the singular form by Abraham, and sometimes in the plural form, as if they were one man, but three.  There is no doubt that it is a visitation by God, for the sacred author writes that The Lord appeared to Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre (18:1).  The famous icon, depicted here, with the title “The Trinity,” by the Russian painter Andrei Rublev in the 15^th century represents the three men as being similar in appearance.  This is true of most icons depicting this scene. 

“Where is your wife?” They asked him.  “There in the tent,” he replied.  He said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a son.”  Some translators add the words “one of them said” for the sake of clarification, but the original Hebrew simply has, “He said.”  He is identified two verses later as “Lord.”  There is mystery in the language, and we are left wondering if, indeed, the Holy Trinity is here obscurely revealed. 

The promise to Abraham and Sarah is the first such miracle of pregnancy to an elderly and/or long barren woman in the Bible, but there are six others, some being more significant to salvation history than others, but none more important than the miraculous conception of St. John the Baptist, Precursor of the Messiah, by Elizabeth.  The miracle of miracles, of course, occurs not in an elderly woman but in a teenage virgin, Mary of Nazareth, who conceives Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

The verses preceding the passage from Genesis 18 chosen for this Sunday’s reading indicate that the three mysterious men start out on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah, to investigate the citizens’ iniquities.  Abraham remains standing, however, and the Lord reflects to himself:  Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, now that he is to become a great and populous nation, and all the nations of the earth are to find blessing in him?  He reveals his plans for those unfortunate cities, and Abraham boldly intercedes for any innocent persons who might be living in them.

Abraham is our father in faith.  The story of the encounter with the three men at Mamre give us a few things to admire and to imitate.  1) The hospitality of Abraham resulted in his receiving the message from God.  Hospitality is a Christian virtue which is often forgotten today.  2)  Faith also is a virtue, necessary for salvation.  St. Paul writes, In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told (Rom 4:18).  Sometimes we need that kind of faith to persevere in God’s will.  3)  Finally, Abraham believed in God’s justice and mercy, which is why he boldly questioned the Lord.  Unfortunately, there were not enough righteous persons in Sodom and Gomorrah to save the cities.  Only Lot, the nephew of Abraham, and his family would be spared.  It would behoove us to remember that God is All-Merciful, and He is equally All-Just.