Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

     Last Sunday we journeyed with Christ into the desert to contemplate His encounter with the devil and the temptations He endured.  In today’s Scripture, we hear the great temptation that Abraham, our father in Faith, endured and wonder how one could possibly fulfill God’s request.  Some may indeed question the benevolence of God for demanding such obedience.  There are perhaps many things we question when it comes to God’s expectations of us and that in itself puts us to the test.  How we respond determines the strength of our Faith.

    Perhaps the best way to approach these tests of Faith is to continue to call upon God for the gift of Wisdom.  We see and experience life very myopically and in our narrow vision fail to see the whole picture.  God indeed knows the full story , the final outcome but we do not.  very often we think: “this is the way it is supposed to be.”  But in fact God has a better outcome.  We don’t know it at the time but when all is said and done we may well be happily surprised that God’s plan and purpose was and is far better than anything we could imagine.  Who would have thought that Abraham’s obedience would bring the blessing of nations of Faith -filled people?   Who would have thought that the crucifixion of the Son of God would bring Salvation?  Yet this is the way God operates and as confounding as it may be we ask for that wisdom or at least that confidence to trust in the Lord to remain faithful to the end, just like Abraham.

With Blessings,

Father Langan