Catechesis Notes for the Week —God’s Promise to Abraham Is Fulfilled in the Cross—At the heart of God’s promise to Abraham is the suffering and death of Jesus, the ultimate Son of the Promise, who by His death would destroy death and bring forth the resurrection of the body to eternal life. In the Sacrifice of Isaac, Abrahm’s Faith Is Revealed. The event in which the Lord calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the son whom he loved, we see a picture of how God the Father would offer up His only begotten Son to the death of the cross. The call to sacrifice Abraham was not a test of the strength of Abraham’s faith, but “a test” that revealed that, by the grace of God, Abraham knew that even if Isaac was put to death, he would rise again because of God’s promise. We learn that this was Abraham’s faith in the words of Hebrews 11:17-19, “By faith Abrahm, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called,’ accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.” Additional Gospel themes are also seen in this narrative, as a ram is caught in a thicket to be the substitute sacrifice in place of Isaac. In the same way, Jesus becomes our substitute in His death upon the cross. The stories of the patriarchs continue to unfold throughout the week in Abraham Sends for a Bride for Isaac. Abraham was concerned more than anything else that Isaac’s bride would share Isaac’s faith in the promise. Rebekah is a gift of God who would be Isaac’s helpmeet. In the account of Jacob and Esau, when Esau Sells His Birthright, we not only see in Esau one who made light of the promise of salvation, but in Jacob (who received the promise) that pattern of yet another man who did not deserve it. Jacob was chosen as the second born son of Isaac, not because of his standing in the family or because he had no sin, but because of God’s grace alone. In the story of Isaac and Abimelech, we see the same patterns of fear and deception that we saw with Abraham and Sarah, but we again see God’s faithfulness to them as His chosen ones.CP221113