Thursday, April 11, 2019

11 April 2019 - promised Son



I will render you exceedingly fertile;
I will make nations of you;
kings shall stem from you.

We who have faith are the heirs to the promises of Abraham.

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all (see Romans 4:16).

The Church is the "Israel of God", the "new creation" of Jesus Christ (see Galatians 6:15-16). And so again, we are the heirs of the promise. But what does that mean to us? We begin to understand when we realize that the promise is it about more than just physical fertility and a geographical promised land.

I will give to you
and to your descendants after you
the land in which you are now staying,
the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession;
and I will be their God."

Christians cannot look for permanence in the world as it stands now. 

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come (see Hebrews 13:14).

The promise to us is one of spirituality fertility. We become a nation that is abundantly fertile, giving birth to souls that live for God, with God indeed as their Father. The promise is of a heavenly city that will not pass away in which the Church even now participates, a place in which even now we find refuge and help.

How does this promise help us? We can rely on it! We can believe it when things look bad for the Church and maintain our hope. We can be confident when we ourselves help to evangelize that we're not only moving within God's plan but that he will help us along the way.

As we try to trust in the promise we need to remember that only in Jesus do we see the true and full meaning of that promise.

Jesus said to the Jews:
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death." 

Only the only-begotten Son can make of the nations sons of God the Father and so create the new promised land. Let us look to him. Realizing who he is and storing his words deep within us is meant to be the very source of our life.

Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM."


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