The incredible love of our God! In the first reading, Genesis 17: 1, 9-10, 15-22, God appeared to Abraham, who is 99 years of age, and asked that he and his descendants keep His covenant. He also promises Abraham that, a year from that day, his wife Sarah, who is 91, will bear him a son (Isaac): "Him ...will I bless; he shall give rise to nations, and rulers of peoples shall issue from him." Abraham laughs and objects, like saying: "Us, at our ages? You got to be kidding." "Let...Ishmael live on in your favor." And God says: "As for Ishmael, I am heeding you; I hereby bless him," also.
God cares about and directs the lives of all: those we treat poorly as Ishmael and Hagar were treated by Sarah, as lepers were treated in Jesus' day (see today's Gospel, Mt 8:1-4), as immigrants and the poor and the vulnerable are being treated in our day by members of Congress and by the president of the U.S., as children and women are being treated by adherents of human trafficking, drug trafficking and those involved in the forced labor industry. All are God's children. And all are here for a purpose designed by their Creator.
What is your purpose? And, yes, we need to ask ourselves: whom am I treating poorly? About which of God's promises to me or anyone else am I laughing?
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