[1] The LORD appeared to Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre, as he sat in the entrance of his tent, while the day was growing hot. [2] Looking up, he saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them; and bowing to the ground, [3] he said: "Sir, if I may ask you this favor, please do not go on past your servant. [4] Let some water be brought, that you may bathe your feet, and then rest yourselves under the tree. [5] Now that you have come this close to your servant, let me bring you a little food, that you may refresh yourselves; and afterward you may go on your way." "Very well," they replied, "do as you have said." [6] Abraham hastened into the tent and told Sarah, "Quick, three seahs of fine flour! Knead it and make rolls." [7] He ran to the herd, picked out a tender, choice steer, and gave it to a servant, who quickly prepared it. [8] Then he got some curds and milk, as well as the steer that had been prepared, and set these before them; and he waited on them under the tree while they ate. [9] "Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him. "There in the tent," he replied.
(CCC 706) Against all human hope, God promises descendants to Abraham, as the fruit of faith and of the power of the Holy Spirit (Cf. Gen 18:1-15; Lk 1:26-38. 54-55; Jn 1:12-13; Rom 4:16-21). In Abraham's progeny all the nations of the earth will be blessed. This progeny will be Christ himself (Cf. Gen 12:3; Gal 3:16), in whom the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will "gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad" (Cf. In 11:52). God commits himself by his own solemn oath to giving his beloved Son and "the promised Holy Spirit… [who is] the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it" (Eph 1:13-14; cf. Gen 22:17-19; Lk 1:73; Jn 3:16; Rom 8:32; Gal 3:14). (CCC 489) Throughout the Old Covenant the mission of many holy women prepared for that of Mary. At the very beginning there was Eve; despite her disobedience, she receives the promise of a posterity that will be victorious over the evil one, as well as the promise that she will be the mother of all the living (Cf. Gen 3:15, 20). By virtue of this promise, Sarah conceives a son in spite of her old age (Cf. Gen 18:10-14; 21:1-2). Against all human expectation God chooses those who were considered powerless and weak to show forth his faithfulness to his promises: Hannah, the mother of Samuel; Deborah; Ruth; Judith and Esther; and many other women (Cf. 1 Cor 1:17; 1 Sam 1). Mary "stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from him. After a long period of waiting the times are fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion, and the new plan of salvation is established"(LG 55).
[1] When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said: "I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless. [2] Between you and me I will establish my covenant, and I will multiply you exceedingly." [3] When Abram prostrated himself, God continued to speak to him: [4] "My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations. [5] No longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations. [6] I will render you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings shall stem from you. [7] I will maintain my covenant with you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting pact, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. [8] I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now staying, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God."
(CCC 1819) Christian hope takes up and fulfills the hope of the chosen people which has its origin and model in the hope of Abraham, who was blessed abundantly by the promises of God fulfilled in Isaac, and who was purified by the test of the sacrifice (Cf. Gen 17:4-8; 22:1-18). "Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became the father of many nations" (Rom 4:18). (CCC 59) In order to gather together scattered humanity God calls Abram from his country, his kindred and his father's house (Gen 12:1), and makes him Abraham, that is, "the father of a multitude of nations". "In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen 17:5; 12:3 (LXX); cf. Gal 3:8).
[4] Then the word of the LORD came to him: "No, that one shall not be your heir; your own issue shall be your heir." [5] He took him outside and said: "Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so," he added, "shall your descendants be." [6] Abram put his faith in the LORD, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.
(CCC 2570) When God calls him, Abraham goes forth "as the Lord had told him" (Gen 12:4); Abraham's heart is entirely submissive to the Word and so he obeys. Such attentiveness of the heart, whose decisions are made according to God's will, is essential to prayer, while the words used count only in relation to it. Abraham's prayer is expressed first by deeds: a man of silence, he constructs an altar to the Lord at each stage of his journey. Only later does Abraham's first prayer in words appear: a veiled complaint reminding God of his promises which seem unfulfilled (Cf. Gen 15:2 f). Thus one aspect of the drama of prayer appears from the beginning: the test of faith in the fidelity of God. (CCC 2571) Because Abraham believed in God and walked in his presence and in covenant with him (Cf. Gen 15:6; 17:1 f.), the patriarch is ready to welcome a mysterious Guest into his tent. Abraham's remarkable hospitality at Mamre foreshadows the annunciation of the true Son of the promise (Cf. Gen 18:1-15; Lk 1:26-38). After that, once God had confided his plan, Abraham's heart is attuned to his Lord's compassion for men and he dares to intercede for them with bold confidence (Cf. 18:16-33).
[1] Some time after these events, this word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram! I am your shield; I will make your reward very great." [2] But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what good will your gifts be, if I keep on being childless and have as my heir the steward of my house, Eliezer?" [3] Abram continued, "See, you have given me no offspring, and so one of my servants will be my heir."
(CCC 752) In Christian usage, the word "church" designates the liturgical assembly (Cf. 1 Cor 11:18; 14:19, 28, 34, 35), but also the local community (Cf. 1 Cor 1:2; 16:1) or the whole universal community of believers (Cf. 1 Cor 15:9; Gal 1:13; Phil 3:6). These three meanings are inseparable. "The Church" is the People that God gathers in the whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical, above all a Eucharistic, assembly. She draws her life from the word and the Body of Christ and so herself becomes Christ's Body. (CCC 2374) Couples who discover that they are sterile suffer greatly. "What will you give me," asks Abraham of God, "for I continue childless?" (Gen 15:2) and Rachel cries to her husband Jacob, "Give me children, or I shall die!" (Gen 30:1). (CCC 146) Abraham thus fulfils the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Heb 11:1): "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness" (Rom 4:3; cf. Gen 15:6). Because he was "strong in his faith", Abraham became the "father of all who believe" (Rom 4:11, 18; 4:20; cf. Gen 15:5).
(Gen 14, 16-18) Melchizedek brought out bread and wine
[16] He recovered all the possessions, besides bringing back his kinsman Lot and his possessions, along with the women and the other captives. [17] When Abram returned from his victory over Chedorlaomer and the kings who were allied with him, the king of Sodom went out to greet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley). [18] Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and being a priest of God Most High, he blessed Abram with these words:
(CCC 1333) At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ's Body and Blood. Faithful to the Lord's command the Church continues to do, in his memory and until his glorious return, what he did on the eve of his Passion: "He took bread...." "He took the cup filled with wine...." The signs of bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of Christ; they continue also to signify the goodness of creation. Thus in the Offertory we give thanks to the Creator for bread and wine (Cf. Ps 104:13-15), fruit of the "work of human hands," but above all as "fruit of the earth" and "of the vine" - gifts of the Creator. The Church sees in the gesture of the king-priest Melchizedek, who "brought out bread and wine," a prefiguring of her own offering (Gen 14:18; cf. Roman Missal, EP I, Roman Canon, 95). (CCC 1544) Everything that the priesthood of the Old Covenant prefigured finds its fulfillment in Christ Jesus, the "one mediator between God and men" (2 Tim 2:5). The Christian tradition considers Melchizedek, "priest of God Most High," as a prefiguration of the priesthood of Christ, the unique "high priest after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb 5:10; cf. 6:20; Gen 14:18); "holy, blameless, unstained" (Heb 7:26), "by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified" (Heb 10:14), that is, by the unique sacrifice of the cross.
[8] So Abram said to Lot: "Let there be no strife between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are kinsmen.
(CCC 500) Against this doctrine the objection is sometimes raised that the Bible mentions brothers and sisters of Jesus (Cf. Mk 3:31-35; 6:3; 1 Cor 9:5; Gal 1:19). The Church has always understood these passages as not referring to other children of the Virgin Mary. In fact James and Joseph, "brothers of Jesus", are the sons of another Mary, a disciple of Christ, whom St. Matthew significantly calls "the other Mary" (Mt 13:55; 28:1; cf. Mt 27:56). They are close relations of Jesus, according to an Old Testament expression (Cf. Gen 13:8; 14:16; 29:15; etc.).
[1] The LORD said to Abram: "Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. [2] "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. [3] I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you." [4] Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
(CCC 59) In order to gather together scattered humanity God calls Abram from his country, his kindred and his father's house (Gen 12:1), and makes him Abraham, that is, "the father of a multitude of nations". "In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen 17:5; 12:3 (LXX); cf. Gal 3:8). (CCC 145) The Letter to the Hebrews, in its great eulogy of the faith of Israel's ancestors, lays special emphasis on Abraham's faith: "By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go" (Heb 11:8; cf. Gen 12:1-4). By faith, he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the promised land (Cf. Gen 23:4). By faith, Sarah was given to conceive the son of the promise. And by faith Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice (Cf. Heb 11:17).
Commentary to the main texts of the Catholic Church through the "CCC" CCC
Dear Visitors and Readers,
We have completed the commentaries of the “Cathechism of the Catholic Church” to “Youcat English: Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church” and to all the other documents of the Catholic Church posted on this blog since 2007. You can always find them on this blog. They are the following:
“New Testament” commented through the Cathechism of the Catholic Church.
“Old Testament” (chosen Pages) commented through the Cathechism of the Catholic Church.
“Compendium of the Cathechism of the Catholic Church” commented through the Cathechism of the Catholic Church.
The four Gospels commented through the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church” and Encyclical Letter "Caritas In Veritate".
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World: “Gaudium et Spes” commented through the Cathechism of the Catholic Church.
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: “Lumen Gentium” commented through the Cathechism of the Catholic Church.
Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation: “Dei Verbum” commented through the Cathechism of the Catholic Church.
“Youcat English: Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church” commented through the Cathechism of the Catholic Church.
We thank You for your kind attention and we wish you always an useful and pleasant reading. God bless You.
Gualberto Gismondi ofm.
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