“To search the sacred Scripture is very good and most profitable for the soul. For, ‘like a tree which is planted near the running waters,’ so does the soul watered by sacred Scripture also grow hearty and bear fruit in due season,” writes John of Damascus in Orthodox Faith (4.17).
WEEK 30
God’s Promises
June 26–July 2
THEME
Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac shows his complete confidence in God’s promises (Gen 22:1–14). Although we sometimes question how long we will have to endure certain trials, we trust God to see us through them (Ps 13). Therefore, we need to yield to God, who offers us eternal life, not giving in to sin (Rom 6:12–23) and offering hospitality in God’s name to others (Mt 10:40–42).
OPENING PRAYER: Proper 8
Confirm, O Lord, we pray you, the hearts of your children, and strengthen them with the power of your grace; that they may both be devout in prayer to you and sincere in love for each other; through Jesus Christ our Lord. [Amen.] The Leonine Sacramentary
OLD TESTAMENT READING: Genesis 22:1–14
Reflections from the Church Fathers
Future Truth. Origen: What do you say to these things, Abraham? What kind of thoughts are stirring in your heart? A word has been uttered by God that is such as to shatter and try your faith. What do you say to these things? What are you thinking? What are you reconsidering? Are you thinking, are you turning over in your heart that if the promise has been given to me in Isaac but I offer him for a burnt offering, it remains that the promise holds no hope? Or rather do you think of those well-known words and say that it is impossible for him who promised to lie; be that as it may, the promise shall remain?… Abraham knew himself to prefigure the image of future truth. He knew the Christ was to be born from his seed, who also was to be offered as a truer victim for the whole world and was to be raised from the dead. Homilies on Genesis 8.1.
Symbolic Meaning. Caesarius of Arles: When Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice of himself, in this too he prefigured Christ our Lord, who carried his own cross to the place of his passion. Sermon 84.3.
Abraham Speaks About the Future. Origen: Abraham’s response, sufficiently accurate and cautious, moves me. I do not know what he saw in his spirit, for he does not speak about the present but about the future: “God himself will provide himself a sheep.” He responded to his son’s inquiry about present things with future things. For “the Lord himself will provide himself a sheep” in Christ, because also, “Wisdom herself has built herself a house,” and “He himself humbled himself unto death.” Homilies on Genesis 8.6.
PSALM OF RESPONSE: Psalm 13
NEW TESTAMENT READING: Romans 6:12–23
Reflections from the Church Fathers
Withholding Consent to the Reign of Sin. Caesarius of Arles: Paul did not say: “Let sin not exist,” but “Let it not reign.” Sin is within you if you take delight in it; it reigns if you consent to it. Sermon 134.3.
Sustaining a Disposition of Urgency. Basil the Great: This injunction would be successfully carried out, I believe, if we were willing always to keep the same disposition of mind as we had at the time of danger. For surely we realized to some degree the vanity of life, as well as the unreliability and instability of human affairs, which change so easily. And in all likelihood we felt contrition for our past faults and promised that for the future, if we were saved we would serve God with watchful exactitude. Letter 26.
Grace Enables Action. Augustine: It is not that the law is evil but that it makes those under it guilty by giving commands without providing help to fulfill them. In fact, grace helps one to become a doer of the law, for without such grace one living under the law will be no more than a hearer of the law. Grace and Free Will 12.24.
Aided by the Spirit. Theodoret of Cyr: In other words, nature is no longer struggling on its own but has the Holy Spirit to help it. Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans.
No Longer Under Law. Ambrosiaster: Although it was right for the law to be given—for it was given in order to show that those who sinned against it were guilty before God and in order to dissuade people from continuing to sin—yet because of the weakness of its infirmity the human race was unable to restrain itself from sin and had become subject to the death of hell. God was moved by the righteousness of his mercy, by which he always comes to the aid of the human race, and through Christ he provided a way by which he could reward those who were without hope. By forgiving their sins he released them from the law which had held them subject. Restored and made whole again by the help of God, they could reject the sins by which they had previously been held down. Therefore we did not sin in rejecting the law but rather we followed the providence of God himself through Christ. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
Recognizing Your Past Life for What It Was. Chrysostom: If even the recollection of your former slavery makes you ashamed, think how much more the reality of it would do so. You have gained in two ways—by being set free from your former shame and by having come to recognize your past life for what it was. Homilies on Romans 12.
King Sin’s Wages. Origen: The death being referred to here is not the death which separates the body from the soul but the death by which because of sin the soul is separated from God. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.
GOSPEL READING: Matthew 10:40–42
Reflections from the Church Fathers
Giving a Cup of Cold Water. Hilary of Poitiers: He teaches that no deed of a good conscience is useless. It is no crime for a believer to have hope that transcends another’s unbelief. For he foresaw that there would be many who glory merely in the name of apostleship but whose every action proves they are unworthy. They deceive and lie perpetually. And yet when we grant these people the favors that are due them because of their mere appearance of religiosity, he does not withhold from us the reward of doing his work and of hope. For even if they are the very least, that is, the worst sinners of all—for nothing is smaller than the “least”—nonetheless she decrees that we have duties toward them. These duties are light but not useless. They are represented by the phrase “cold water.” For honor is to be paid not to the sins of the individual but to his status as a disciple. He grants his reward to the faith of the one who gives, not to the deceitfulness of the one who receives. On Matthew 10.29.
Overcoming Evasions. Jerome: Jesus said, “He who receives you receives me.” But there are many false prophets and false preachers who perhaps make this doctrine difficult. He has also cured this stumbling block by saying, “He who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.” Then again, someone may object and say, “I am prevented by poverty. My own lack prevents me from acting as a host.” Jesus eliminated this excuse, too, by the easily fulfilled command that we should offer a cup of cold water with our whole heart. He said “cold water” rather than “hot water” so that we could not object because of our poverty or lack of fuel for hot water. Commentary on Matthew 1.10.40–42.
CLOSING PRAYER
O Lord Jesus Christ, Good Shepherd of the sheep, who came to seek the lost and to gather them to your fold, have compassion on those who have wandered from you; feed those who hunger, cause the weary to lie down in your pastures, bind up those who are broken in heart and strengthen those who are weak, that we, relying on your care and being comforted by your love, may abide in your guidance to our lives’ end; for your name’s sake. Amen. Anonymous
Oden, T. C., & Crosby, C., eds. (2007). Ancient Christian Devotional: A Year of Weekly Readings: Lectionary Cycle A (p. 155). IVP Books.
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