The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate how the message in the cliche that “God writes straight with crooked lines” may resonate in our lives today.
Reflection on our past
The reading from the Book of Genesis describes the testing of Abraham in the command to sacrifice Isaac.
* [22:1–19] The divine demand that Abraham sacrifice to God the son of promise is the greatest of his trials; after the successful completion of the test, he has only to buy a burial site for Sarah and find a wife for Isaac. The story is widely recognized as a literary masterpiece, depicting in a few lines God as the absolute Lord, inscrutable yet ultimately gracious, and Abraham, acting in moral grandeur as the great ancestor of Israel. Abraham speaks simply, with none of the wordy evasions of chaps. 13 and 21. The style is laconic; motivations and thoughts are not explained, and the reader cannot but wonder at the scene. In vv. 15–18, the angel repeats the seventh and climactic promise. Moriah: the mountain is not given a precise geographical location here, though 2 Chr 3:1 identifies Moriah as the mountain of Jerusalem where Solomon built the Temple; Abraham is thus the first to worship there. The word “Moriah” is a play on the verb “to see” (Heb. ra’ah); the wordplay is continued in v. 8, “God will provide (lit., “see”)” and in v. 14, Yahweh-yireh, meaning “the Lord will see/provide.”1
Psalm 115 declares the impotence of idols and the greatness of God.
* [Psalm 115] A response to the enemy taunt, “Where is your God?” This hymn to the glory of Israel’s God (Ps 115:1–3) ridicules the lifeless idols of the nations (Ps 115:4–8), expresses in a litany the trust of the various classes of the people in God (Ps 115:9–11), invokes God’s blessing on them as they invoke the divine name (Ps 115:12–15), and concludes as it began with praise of God. Ps 135:15–18 similarly mocks the Gentile gods and has a similar litany and hymn (Ps 135:19–21).2
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus heals a paralytic.
* [9:8] Who had given such authority to human beings: a significant difference from Mk 2:12 (“They…glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this’”). Matthew’s extension to human beings of the authority to forgive sins points to the belief that such authority was being claimed by Matthew’s church.3
Mirielle Mason comments that Jesus knew the people may have trouble believing in His power to heal what cannot be seen (our sins) so He intelligently did things in this order. Showing the crowd that the man was healed physically, may have helped them believe that He healed the man spiritually as well.
This passage is beautiful because it shows us that God desires to know our hearts and heal the broken pieces. He looks beyond the physical to what makes us who we are on the inside. Is this not a wonderful thing to apply today? Moving forward, I hope this reading inspires us to keep up with our spiritual health, in addition to our mental and physical health, through confession, prayer, and whatever else may be necessary.4
Don Schwager quotes “Healing of soul and body,” by Hilary of Poitiers (315-367 AD).
"Now in the narrative of the paralytic a number of people are brought forward for healing. Jesus' words of healing are worthy of reflection. The paralytic is not told, 'Be healed.' He is not told, 'Rise and walk.' But he is told, 'Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven you.' The paralytic is a descendant of the original man, Adam. In one person, Christ, all the sins of Adam are forgiven. In this case the person to be healed is brought forward by ministering angels. In this case, too, he is called a son, because he is God's first work. The sins of his soul are forgiven him, and pardon of the first transgression is granted. We do not believe the paralytic committed any sin [that resulted in his illness], especially since the Lord said elsewhere that blindness from birth had not been contracted from someone's sin or that of his parents" [John 9:1-3]. (excerpt from commentary ON MATTHEW 8.5)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Genesis 22:1-19 comments that over the course of our lives, we’ve all undergone “tests” of one kind or another. Serious illnesses. Financial difficulties. Broken relationships. In these and other situations, our faith can be sorely tested. But like Abraham, we also have a choice. Will we choose to believe in a God who keeps his promises? Will we choose to remain faithful to him? Or will we doubt that he is trustworthy and go our own way?
Today, take a few moments and consider a test of faith in your life. Then reflect on how you’ve been responding to it. When you are tempted to doubt, ask God for the grace to trust in his goodness and care. Then choose to believe that he is a God who is always trustworthy and who always keeps his promises. “I believe that you are faithful, Lord! I will trust and obey you.”6
Friar Jude Winkler considers the protective aspects of the relationship of Abraham to Isaac. Abraham is seen to be faithful to God in a prefiguration of how Jesus died. Friar Jude reminds us that Jesus asserts the authority of God in forgiving the sins of the paralytic.
Nicholas King SJ, a tutor in Biblical Studies at the University of Oxford, notes that Matthew, in the second verse of his gospel, has given us three ancestors of Jesus (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) who carry the message that God is at work even as we may conclude that God writes straight with crooked lines.
not just in these three rather complex lives, but in the whole of the story: from the first giving of the promises to Abraham to their apparent fulfilment in David; from David to the catastrophe of the Exile; from that disaster, where it seemed that God’s promises were no longer operative; to the appearance of Jesus in whom all God’s promises were (after all) fulfilled. So we need not be afraid to read these unskilled parents, unpromising ancestors of our Messiah, as a sign that God can indeed ‘write straight with crooked lines’.7
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that the author of the biblical book of Job wrestled with the mystery of evil. With Israel’s exile still fresh in mind, the biblical author confronts the mystery of suffering, pushes hard against it, and refuses to be satisfied with pious platitudes.
As an Israelite himself, the author considers whether what they have experienced in their corporate life might also be possible in individual life. Could there really be a way to survive after death, a place where God’s justice and love will be truly realized? In one passage at least, Job voices confident hope that there is: I know that my redeemer lives, and in the end God will take his stand upon the earth. After this body has decayed, these eyes will look upon the Lord, and I will see God close to me—not someone else, but God! My heart trembles at the thought! (Job 19:25–27)8
The mystery that our evil acts that are known to God, who patiently awaits our call for healing, can be redeemed overwhelms our human understanding. Our salvation is in attention to our relationship with Jesus and the prompting of the Spirit.
References
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