by Susan
Fox
“God so
loved the world, He gave His only Son.”(John 3:16)
When I was
a young girl I had to study Bible History in grade school. I can still remember
those pictures of Abraham dragging his son Isaac up that hill while the poor
unsuspecting boy didn’t know he was going to be killed.
At the
time, the story was presented to me as a test of Abraham’s faith in the Lord. I
just thought God was mean to ask it of Abraham in the first place.
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| Isaac carrying the wood for the sacrifice a figure for Jesus Christ. "Where's the Sacrifice, Dad?" |
Later, I
understood that when Isaac – burdened with a load of wood – wondered out loud
where was the sacrifice, Abraham answered prophetically, “God Himself will
provide the lamb for the sacrifice.”
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| The Lamb Who was Sacrificed: Behold the Lamb of God Who Takes Away the Sins of the World. |
When he
said, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the sacrifice,” Abraham thought
his son Isaac would be that sacrifice. But it appears that God the Holy Spirit anticipated
that Jesus would be the sacrifice when he inspired Abraham to say that.
Of course, Isaac was saved at the last minute by an angel, who said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy… Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
So, yes, it
was a test. And Isaac was an image, a type for Jesus Christ, who would one day
carry the wood of the cross on His back, and that wood would become the
instrument of His torture and death.
But I still
felt that God was somewhat selfish because He sent “His Son.” I know that
Jesus, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, volunteered for the job, but why
didn’t the Father or the Holy Spirit offer to go instead?
But one day
I finally understood the unadulterated, pure self-giving love of God. The understanding
came when the Apostle Philip asked Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and that
will be enough for us.”
It’s almost
eerie when you hear Jesus answer, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have
been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
So when God
so loved the world He sent His Son, He actually gave Himself in His totality because
“I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.” Jesus and the Father are One.
When a man
gives his seed in the marriage bed, that is an act of self-giving love. And no
man wants to send his son in to be tortured and killed. But if that were to happen, the son who is
killed is not the same person as the father. They are two different people. The
son alone would go through the torture and death, not the father.
But when
God the Father approached the Blessed Virgin Mary through the Angel Gabriel, He
was really offering much, much more. He didn’t just give Mary seed, He gave her
Himself in His Son, and in that fruitful giving (overshadowed by the Holy Spirit) Jesus
was conceived in her womb. But so was the Father -- in His Divine Nature -- because as Jesus said, “The
Father and I are One.”
“The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” (John 14:10)
“The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” (John 14:10)
As
Catholics and Christians, we tend to divide God up and think of three instead
of one. We have to sort them out. One is
the Creator, One is the Redeemer and One is the Sanctifier.
But through
the message of the angel Gabriel, only One God approached the Blessed Virgin
Mary. God Himself humbly asked Mary to receive Him in her womb. She – unlike the rest of us – knew exactly who
she was. “I am the Handmaid of the Lord.”
And for a
servant of God only one answer is possible: “Yes! Be it done to me according to
your word.”
And so
Jesus became the Son of the Handmaid, and the Father placed His own Glory within Mary. The Lamb He provided for the sacrifice – it was God Himself!
