Cycle B Lent 2nd Week Sunday

Surrendering Our Isaacs

It is said that people in India use a simple trick to capture monkeys. The hunter fastens a piece
of cord to a tree. On the other end he attaches a coconut shell that has a hole just big enough for
the monkey to put his hand in. And inside the coconut the trader puts some nuts or something
else to eat. Then he hides and waits for a monkey to fall for his trap.
Monkeys are curious, and so sooner or later a monkey discovers the contents of the coconut.
The monkey can put the hand into the coconut easily enough, but once he has grabbed the snack,
he can’t pull the clenched fist out of the narrow opening, no matter how hard he tries to break
free. The monkey is trapped. The hunter then proceeds to capture it.
Are monkeys so stupid to fall for such a trap? Why does it not simply let go of the snack it
holds on to, to set itself free? But are we human beings like these monkeys?
Today’s chosen scripture passages invite us to surrender, let go of the things important to
us so that we can receive the things that are important to the Lord. Our readings today
remind us that we ought to let go of everything so that we can be free to receive everything
that the Lord wishes us to have.
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What does it mean to surrender all to God? Let us put ourselves in the place of Abraham to
find out what surrendering everything in faith really means.
Abraham and Sarah have longed for a son for many years. The Lord has promised Abraham
for years that he would bless him with a son through whom He would fulfill his promised to
make Abraham a father of a great nation. But Abraham and Sarah were very old. Worse, Sarah
was barren.
The couple attempt to have a child through their slave girl Hagar who eventually bore him a
son whom they named Ishmael. But the Lord revealed that his son Ishmael was not the way he
intended to fulfill his promise. The situation and promise seemed impossible until finally, by
some miracle, Sarah conceives and they are given a son, Isaac, who is described as Abraham’s
“only one,” his “precious one.” But then, one day, God invites Abraham to take Isaac and offer
him in sacrifice. Abraham, with a heavy heart, agrees to the request even if it seemed that the
Lord was asking Abraham to kill a promise that they have long waited to be fulfilled. And so
Abraham sets off with Isaac to Mt. Moriah, where the sacrifice is to take place, carrying wood,
fire, and a knife. And all along the three-day journey, Abraham had to answer his Isaac’s
curiosity about why they were not bringing any animal for the sacrifice.
When they arrive at the place of sacrifice, Abraham gathers the wood, lights the fire, binds
Isaac, and then raises the knife to kill him. But God intervenes, stops the sacrifice, and gives
Abraham a ram instead to offer. The story ends with Abraham walking back to his own land
together with Isaac. Abraham was put to the test, and he passed. He was ready to go through
with something horrible because he believed it was God’s will. His attitude was enough to
show that the Lord came first in his life. As the Lord himself said, “I know now how devoted
you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.”
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 In today’s Second Reading Paul reminds us that the Lord spared Abraham’s son, but He
did not hesitate to sacrifice his own.
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him
over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?
In other words, in giving up his only begotten Son for our sake, the Father showed that he was
willing to give up everything to redeem us back from evil. Just as Abraham showed how the
Lord had first place in his life through his willingness to sacrifice his son, the Lord shows us
that we are first place in his. Sacrificing his only-begotten son shows that there’s nothing he is
not willing to do for us.
And how do we respond to a loving and merciful God?
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Ignatius of Loyola proposes that we respond in love by generously surrendering and putting
everything at the disposal of the Father. He teaches us this prayer:
Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire
will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me. To You, Lord, I return it.
Everything is Yours, dispose of it wholly according to Your will. Give me only Your love
and Your grace. That is enough for me. Amen.
The prayer invites us to hold all our gifts before the Lord. It is like holding out a tray to him
for him to freely put his gifts and to take any back if so he wishes. This attitude of surrender is
that attitude that Abraham had. He loved the Lord so much to put God in the forefront of his life,
that everything else, including his beloved son, secondary.
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We can sometimes be like monkeys who stubbornly hold on to things that keep us from truly
receiving the gifts that the Lord wants us to have. And so, in this Lenten season, we try to
identify that nut that Lord wants us to let go of.
God asked Abraham to lay down his Isaac. His story is an incredible picture of the Cross and
how God loved us enough to surrender His Son, Jesus, to win us back from evil. Does the Lord
come first in our lives? Do we love Him enough to surrender our Isaac today?

PRAYER OF SURRENDER AS I LAY DOWN MY ISAAC:

"Dear God, Your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen."
“Take Lord and receive everything I have and call my own. Give me only the grace to love you.”