13th Week in Ord. Time, Friday – 7th July 2023 – Genesis 23,1-4.19; 24,1-8.62-67 Mt 9,9-13
Anchored Confidence
The first reading combines a few stories together to bring to an end Abraham’s story. First, we hear about the death of his wife, Sarah. This leads to the first owning of the property by Abraham in the land promised to him by God. Ownership of burial land was a crucial step in establishing legal residence. Until then Abraham was living in the tents. By purchasing a burial place in Canaan, Abraham indicated his unswerving commitment to the Lord’s promise: Canaan was his new homeland.
Next, we hear about the dying request of Abraham to find a wife for his son, Isaac, not from Canaan, where he got settled but from his ancestral homeland of Ur and Haran. The servant asked Abraham what to do if a woman cannot be found, who is willing to live in Canaan. Abraham insists that God will make it happen. More specifically, he is sure that an angel of the Lord will intervene to make a way to bring it to pass. Here Abraham doesn’t allow Isaac to go with his servant. Because Isaac’s place is in the Promised Land of Canaan. This is the home of Abraham’s future offspring. Then, where did Abraham’s confidence that God will work come from? His confidence in God’s ability to move people where He wanted them was based on what the Lord did exactly in his own life. He came to Abraham in the land of his own people and took him from his father’s house and promised to give the land of Canaan to his offspring (Gen 12,1-7). If God did that in Abraham’s life, the Lord would also do similarly in the life of this woman, whom Isaac was meant to marry. This is the confidence he developed: God has the ability to work in the circumstances of others as He had worked in his.
