Be Inspired Now!

It happened some time later that God put Abraham to the test. ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ he called. ‘Here I am,’ he replied. God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, your beloved Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, where you are to offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall point out to you.’ When they arrived at the place which God had indicated to him, Abraham built an altar there, and arranged the wood. Then he bound his son and put him on the altar on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.

This was part of the first Reading in this Sunday’s Mass, March 8, 2009 which was taken from Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18.

Of course, we all know what happened. Abraham did not really kill Isaac, God did not allow him as He has already proven Abraham’s love and faithfulness to Him. Instead, God sent a lamb that Abraham can offer in Isaac’s place.

It strucked me.

Just these past few day, I am again having some not-so-good discussions with Ralph Emerson, my eldest son. Being their lone parent, I always want them to be at home most of the time. I feel safer when I can see them. And being the eldest son, I rely on Ralph on lots of things in the house.

But children grow… they explore… they want to find their own world. To be honest, I should consider myself to be lucky, because my son found a better world to explore. He became active in the youth council of the Catholic community which I actually introduced him to.

Most Sundays, he would be out of the house the whole day because they would have their whole day fellowship or he would participate in the community’s outreached program where they spread the Good News to different places in Pampanga and in nearby provinces.

At first, I have no problem with this, until it became more often and I see less and less of him on Sundays. Wanting to keep a closely-knitted family, I demanded more from my son, saying that Sundays should be time to spend with the family. I didn’t really impose my authority on him, but I always nagged him… even threatening to make him stop everytime he do something wrong.

The irony of it is that, I myself grew up serving the Church. I was an altar boy when I was young, a member of the choir as I grew older, and became one of those who helped the priest in distributing Holy Communion during Mass when I became much older.

I am selfish I know.

That’s why Abraham’s faithfullnes humbled me. God was not asking me to kill my son as an offering… He only wants me to allow my son to help Him spread the Word. He wants me to allow my son to trek the same road I travelled and remind me how beautiful, memorable and fun that journey was.

Letting go has never been easy for me, as I have written in a previous post before. But if it’s God who is asking me to… who am I to deny Him?