Holy Father's Prayer Intentions For July 2009
General: That the Christians of the Middle East may live their faith in full freedom and be an instrument of peace and reconciliation.
Mission: That the Church may be the seed and nucleus of a humanity reconciled and reunited in God's one and only family, thanks to the testimony of all the faithful in every country in the world.
From: Genesis 21:5, 8-20
Hagar and Ismael are sent away
[15] When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the
bushes. [16] Then she went, and sat down over against him a good way off,
about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Let me not look upon the death
of the child. And as she sat over against him, the child lifted up his voice and
wept. [17] And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to
Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not; for
God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. [18] Arise, lift up the lad, and
hold him fast with your hand; for I will make him a great nation. [19] Then God
opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the skin
with water, and gave the lad a drink. [20] And God was with the lad, and he
grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.
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Commentary:
1-7. The promise recounted in 15:18 and 17:19-21 now begins to be fulfilled.
The patriarch’s age serves to show the special intervention by God in the birth
of Isaac; as does the etymological explanation of the child’s name, “she began
to laugh, which is now interpreted as “God has made laughter for me, that is,
has made me happy (cf. 18:15). And Abraham’s obedience is very clear: he
strictly fulfils the commandment of circumcision.
This is perhaps the most joyful moment in the patriarch’s life: up to now it has
been very much marked by trials and tribulations. With the birth of Isaac Abra-
ham’s trust in God grows, as can be seen now by his prompt obedience to his
Law. The Lord is strengthening the patriarch for the final test which he will make
him undergo later. This event in Abraham’s life helps us to see that in moments
of darkness in the course of our life we need to put our trust in God: “The time
has come to cry to him, Remember, Lord, the promises you made, filling me
with hope; they console me in my nothingness and fill my life with strength (Ps
119: 49-50). Our Lord wants us to rely on him for everything; it is now glaringly
evident to us that without him we can do nothing (cf. Jn 15:5), whereas with him
we can do all things (cf. Phil 4:13). We confirm our decision to walk always in
his presence (cf. Ps 119:168) (Bl. J. Escriva, Friends of God, 305).
8-21. This second expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael from the house of Abraham
completes the story given in chapter 16. We now see the reason for it, given
that expulsion went against the established law. Sarah’s attitude was a decisive
factor in ensuring that Isaac alone would be Abraham’s heir. Acting against the
succession laws of the time, Sarah seconds God’s plan to have Abraham’s true
descendent come through Isaac, the son according to the promise, and not
through Ishmael, his son according to nature alone. In this way the role of wo-
man is highlighted, particularly the role of mother, in the fulfillment of the divine
designs. For St Paul, Hagar and Sarah and the circumstances surrounding them
are a type of the two Covenants (cf. Gal 4:21-31) the first, that of Mount Sinai,
represented by the slave-girl Hagar who gives birth according to the flesh; the
second, referring to the new Covenant in Christ, represented by Sarah, the free
wife, who gives birth according to the promise. Writing to the Christians of Ga-
latia, and in the light of this typology, St Paul exclaims: “So, brethren, we are
not children of the slave but of the free woman (Gal 4:31).
The scene of Hagar in the wilderness is itself an example of the mercy of God
for, as St John Chrysostom teaches, “whenever God wishes, even if we are ut-
terly alone, even if we are in desperate trouble, even if we have no hope of survi-
val, we need no other assistance, since God’s grace is all we require. You see,
if we win favour from him, no one will get the better of us, but rather we will pre-
vail against anyone (Homiliae in Genesim, 46, 2).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.