During the Easter vigil service presided by His Excellency Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao, Saturday night, the Word of God proclaimed was loud, clear and comprehensible! It had Power to move the listener and it indeed touched my core!. In the second reading of Genesis 22: 1ff. God said to Abraham: “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his servants with him, and his son Isaac… On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place… Then Abraham said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and we shall worship and come back to you.” ….So both of them went together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” Abraham replied, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide for the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So both them set out together.
This Word moved me: “I and the boy will go over there and we shall worship and then come back to you.” “God himself will provide for the lamb for a burnt offering…” Here I see a convinced response of Abraham to his servants and his son. Amazing!!! What? The Faith of Abraham in the promise of God! Promise, in Gen 17: 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. And verse 16: I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations… Undoubtedly! also, obedience to God. As well Abraham could say to God or remind him of his promise: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations?!! But nothing of that sort happened, generally, what human beings do in our daily life, reminding and bringing up the past!!!
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Secondly, Abraham could also have said to the servants, ‘we will go over there and come back to you?’, why did he say ‘we will worship and …?. It was the worship of God, positive attitude(words), in these moments that God was watching over and his trust in Divine Providence – He himself will provide. Various interpreters give different interpretations, yet, this is what the Spirit of God revealed!.
Words have power and energy to create, heal, hinder and also to humiliate. The powerful force of the words we utter, need to convey faith, confidence, encouragement, respect, gentleness and humility. For words can make and break a person.
Whatever you pronounce will become flesh in you. Just as the angel of God said to Mary, “the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the Power of the Most High God will overshadow you…”. And by His Word, God created the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, he said, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Words are powerful and they give life and also bring death.
What Abraham pronounced with faith and confidence, God compensated him declaring his offspring to be as the sand of the sea and stars of the heaven!!! Repeat Words that have Power and you will reap what you sow!
