Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Typology is a form of biblical interpretation. You look back into the Old Testament and find a type, a symbolic person or event which prefigure fulfillment in Christ (the antitype).
Today we have one of the preeminent types for Christ: the Sacrifice of Isaac. Isaac is the beloved son, the son of the covenant. Abraham is asked to do the unthinkable and sacrifice his only son to the true God. Isaac carries the wood that he will be laid out upon for the offering. We can see the parallels with Jesus carrying the Cross in this way. The difference is that at the last minute an angel stops Abraham’s hand from going through with the bloody ritual.
This is a hard reading, partly because we know it prefigures the Crucifixion and partly because of the abhorrence we have for human sacrifice. What is the point of any sacrifice then? It is not that it is valuable to God, for “Do I eat the flesh of bulls and drink the blood of he-goats?” (Psalm 50:13); rather, sacrifice is taking something that is valuable to us and giving it to God to form a unity with the One whom we cannot repay.
What does it mean then, when our heavenly Father sacrifices His own beloved Son for us? It is a sign of unfathomable love that has the power to destroy sin and death. We were unable to cleanse ourselves with animal sacrifices. Now human sin and death have been destroyed in the perfect gift of Christ, we can be united to God perfectly. We see that even as the Lord must have seen sin as a consequence of giving humans free will, He had already planned to give us an even greater Savior. He prepared humanity from the start to understand and receive His unfathomable love.
Reflection by Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections