Across from Saint John Lateran Basilica in Rome, there is one the city’s most famous pilgrims’ destinations, the Holy Stairs. Tradition says that the 28 marble steps were a stairway from Pontius Pilate’s palace and consequently the Lord should have climbed them before Pilate condemned him to death. The steps are now covered in wood to prevent people touching them. Pilgrims ascend the steps on their knees. This ascending is spiritually powerful. I did it with my nephews this January. Andrew, my nephew from Savanah speaks of that visit to the Holy Stairs as one of the most moving moments from his visit to Rome.
As on Holy Thursday, we will look at the attempted sacrifice of Abraham as a lens through which we may try to understand the Lord’s Passion and Death. Abraham’s story is about the interaction between a father and a son. The other main protagonist is God. Surprisingly Sarah, Isaac’s mother, does not appear at all in the story.
The mother was not included perhaps because the intent of the story is to show the excruciating emotional roller-coaster of a father and of a son. We see a father willing to kill his son out of love for and obedience to God, and a son who was innocent, not fully aware of all the facts and yet fully obedient to his father’s will. The two servants who accompanied Abraham and Isaac during the first two days of the trip stay behind during the ascent to Mt. Moria. This allowed for the full display of the two human wills alone in the presence of God. Sarah prompts us to reflect on the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary regarding the Lord’s death.
We may wonder if God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son was the introduction of human sacrifices in the religion of Israel. Some of the religions of the neighboring peoples included human sacrifices. God did not intent to introduce human sacrifice in the religion of Israel and God made this point clear from the beginning. God wanted to test the faith of Abraham in the most extreme way. It was a test only, which the introduction of the story tells us clearly, “Sometime after, God put Abraham to the test”. Whether Abraham had disobeyed or obeyed, either way a human sacrifice would not be the result. Either way, Isaac’s life was safe.
The religion of Isarel, paradoxically though, has at its focal point a human sacrifice. It took place for the salvation of the world. The sacrificial victim was not a regular human being but the very Son of God, true God and true man. Only this one human sacrifice was necessary.
After Abraham left his two servers behind, he “took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac” (Genesis 22:6). Saint John tells us, “So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the place of the Skull, in Hebrew Golgotha” (19:16-17).
Isaac at some point asked Abraham about the missing lamb for the burnt offering. Abraham concealed the facts of the plan from Isaac. On the contrary, God the Father clearly revealed the facts of his plans for his beloved Son with him. The Lord needed to know the plan. This way he could go to his sacrifice freely and with full knowledge.
The crosses in our lives are of two kinds, some of our own making and some from God. The crosses that God gives us are often mysterious. Their purpose is often veiled from us. The Lord gives an example of accepting them with faith and trust. Let us humbly ask him to help us learn this from him.
Abraham attempted to sacrifice his son out of love for God. God the Father handed his Beloved Son over to death out of love for the world, for all humanity past, present, and future. Our Lord accepted his passion and death out of love for his heavenly Father and for all his brothers and sisters. Today the Church prostrates in adoration of the Cross in which hung the Lord, the salvation of the world. “How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me?” (Psalm 116: 12).