Part 1

- March 9, 2004 -

Introduction

For the universal Catholic Church as well as most of the Christian community, the year 2000 was more than the date of fearful change with its scary visions of the "millennium bug" and apocalyptic visions of the collapse of Western society. It was the celebration of 2,000 years of the presence of Jesus Christ and through him faith in God. It was a Jubilee Year of faith. On the 23rd February 2000 Pope John Paul II began a pilgrimage that would take him in a few days to Mount Sinai and to Jerusalem. The Holy Father began his pilgrimage to the places of Revelation in a unique way. His odyssey began in Rome, in St. Peter's Square and in the Vatican General Audience Hall, which was brimming with pilgrims. On these two sites, the distant echoes of Ur of the Chaldeans resonated -- the place from which Abraham departed for the Promised Land. It began in Rome with a virtual visit because the then contemporary situation in Iraq precluded an actual visit there. It was a real disappointment for the Pope that he could not touch the land of the Chaldeans.

So the Pope travelled "spiritually" to places visited by "our Father in faith." The ceremony became a thought provoking interweaving of sacred places and images, chosen with care by the Pontiff himself. It began when the Pope greeted 12,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square in several different languages. It ended by referring to different places in contemporary Iraq. A highlight of the meeting was the moment when Rome joined Iraqi Christians in St. Joseph's Cathedral in Baghdad, live via satellite.

In his introductory remarks on that occasion Pope John Paul II said:

"…during this year of the Great Jubilee, as our hearts return to the beginnings of God's covenant with humanity, we turn our gaze to Abraham, to the place where he heard God's call and responded to it with the obedience of faith. Together with us, Jews and Muslims also look to the person of Abraham as a model of unconditional submission to the will of God (cf. Nostra aetate, n. 3). ".

Christianity and Abraham

For Christians and our sacred books Abraham is second only to Moses among references to biblical heroes. In the four gospels and the letters of Paul there are 71 mentions of Abraham to be found. Especially in Paul, the key point is to establish descent from or connection to Abraham so that Christianity can claim the promises made to Abraham.

In their genealogies of Christ Matthew traces Jesus back to Abraham and Luke goes all the way back to Adam, but uses Abraham as touchstone

Paul moves the discussion to Abraham as "father in faith", and followers of Jesus as descendants of Abraham through sharing his faith. In this approach Abraham is justified by his faith and so are we.

This idea is also prayed in the Roman Catholic Church whenever the Roman Canon is used at Mass wherein the priest says:

Father, we celebrate the memory of Christ, your Son. We, your people and your ministers, recall his passion, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into glory; and from the many gifts you have given us we offer to you, God of glory and majesty, this holy and perfect sacrifice: the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation.

Look with favor on these offerings and accept them as once you accepted the gifts of your servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the bread and wine offered by your priest Melchizedek.

Inclusion of Abraham (along with Moses and Elijah) in the Litany of Saints is also a symbol of the importance of Abraham and his promise is for Christians.

For a Christian interpretation of the Call, the key words of the text are "Abraham heard … Abraham went forth". This is a classic defintion of faith.

Abraham and Christian Faith

For the most part the message of Abraham is the assertions that God truly intervenes in human existence and, despite the challenge to understand how, human beings have the capacity to accept the divine transcendence in a response that we call faith. In the story of the call of Abraham, we encounter the question: how can God and humanity ever meet? Is it God who approaches us or is it the greatest of human activity to seek and find the divine? What role does reason play in this encounter?

For Christians Abraham is a key figure in our working out these questions. Put as briefly as possible we Christians, in our desire to connect through Jesus with Abraham and God's promise to him, define the children of Abraham, those who continue the encounter begun with Abraham, as those who do the works of Abraham. What are the works of Abraham?

Simply put, the works of Abraham are works of faith. Abraham was a man of faith, therefore believed in God, and served him by faith. All who are of faith are said to be the children of Abraham. Just as Abraham "believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteous," so you see, those who believe are the descendents of Abraham. (Gal. 3:6-7) This is also the thesis of the fourth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans.

While in our modern context we may not be comfortable with the notion, we have to admit that the story of Abraham's call and promise is one of exclusivity. The descendents of Abraham by physical progeny or by faith are set apart from others. The other nations or peoples have not been called or chosen, have not had this special revelation and encounter with God. For Christians, as expressed even in the gospels and the letters of Paul, the call of Abraham is made more universal through faith in Jesus as Lord. This invitation is open to all peoples, all nations.

Nonetheless, it is clear that in the development of the Christian tradition two poles emerge with respect to the relationship of Abraham to the Christian.

One approach found in St Paul, the gospels of Matthew and Luke and the letter to the Hebrews stresses the continuity of God's history of covenant and blessing from Abraham to Jesus. In principle, the father of Israel received a promise for his descendents. To be an heir to that promise requires a faith that justifies, set us in a new relationship with God. This approach seeks to include all in the history of the faith in the One God. In other words, it desires to bring the Church into flow begun with Abraham.

The other approach is to be found in the gospel of John in the early Christian apologists, St Justin and Augustine. It seeks to promote the legitimacy of the Christian faith as the true faith. In reverse to the first school of thought, it draws to line of connection from Jesus to Abraham. In this approach Abraham is not understood primarily as the father of Israel but the witness to Jesus. In fact, it is the effort to incorporate Abraham into the Christian Church.

It would take more time than you have tonight and more thought that I can offer to examine the millennium exercise of faith of Pope John Paul II that I described at the outset of the presentation to see which school of thought it was expressing.

Conclusion

It is a simplification to say that geography (dirt) causes wars and yet ancestors (people) can bring us together. But in this context of dialogue it has some significance.

Ultimately, as father of all believers, Abraham is to be looked upon as a source of unity and harmony rather than dissent among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. We must in truth be clear about the very real divisions.

In the 23rd chapter of the Book of Genesis Abraham, a very old man, comes before the Council of the Hittites, in whose land he is still travelling in response to his faith in God's promise. At 127 years of age his Sarah has died and now he in grief and with some time constraint is seeking to buy a burial spot that would belong to him. He has in mind a cave on the land of Ephron the Hittite. As a resident alien he cannot own land without the Council's witness and consent. He wants his own land because the promise requires the separateness of Abraham's God. His faith makes him separate and yet his faith creates a family, descendants who inherit the promise. In that cave will eventually be buried Sarah and Abraham, Rebekah and Isaac, Leah and Jacob, three generations.

People can be divided by history (and especially by land) but family can unite them. Of course, we can even interpret the family in your own way but it is still a family. Indeed, according to Genesis even Isaac and Ishmael met for Abraham's funeral.

There is always hope when there is dialogue.

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