Abraham and Paul: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Listen to the homily here.

Notes:

16^thSunday in Ordinary Time

Today I would like to speak about Abraham and Paul

·      And why these two? Well, both believed in their mission from God, even when they experienced with difficult challenges

So, let’s begin with Abraham as he was in our first reading today within the first book in the Bible: Genesis

·      His name—Abram—first appeared in Genesis 11 with genealiges, and in the next chapter, we see his mission from God in chapter 12 

o   Gensis 12:1, 4: “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you… So Abram went, as the LORD had told him…”

·      Our first reading today comes in chapter 18 as Abraham saw “three men” (aka, the first time we can consider about the Trinity

o   He and his wife, now Sarah, showed their hospitality, during their troubleness—not having a child

o   And they were told: “They asked Abraham, "Where is your wife Sarah?"
He replied, "There in the tent." 
One of them said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year,
and Sarah will then have a son."

·      Their faith through difficulties changed their lives

So did Paul

·      As we know St. Paul as someone who first terrorized the disciples of Jesus Christ, as he arrested them, persecuted them, even murdered them

·      Remember his journey to Damascus and he was blinded and told by God, “And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul,Saul, why do you persecute me?”

·      God had a plan for Saul/Paul which we heard in our second reading in his letter to the Colossians

·      And here is he shared his difficulties

o   “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,and in my flesh I am filling up
what is lacking in the afflictions of Christon behalf of his body, which is the church,of which I am a ministerin accordance with God's stewardship given to meto bring to completion for you the word of God,the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past.  But now it has been manifested to his holy ones,
to whom God chose to make known the riches of the gloryof this mystery among the Gentiles;it is Christ in you, the hope for glory. 

Now neither Abraham nor Paul were perfect

·      But God called them for individual missions

·      And so does God call you and me for our missions

·      God doesn’t call the perfect, God perfects the called to each of you