Thursday, January 14, 2010

Gen 18, 10-15 Is anything too marvelous for the LORD?

(Gen 18, 10-15) Is anything too marvelous for the LORD?

[10] One of them said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a son." Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, just behind him. [11] Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years, and Sarah had stopped having her womanly periods. [12] So Sarah laughed to herself and said, "Now that I am so withered and my husband is so old, am I still to have sexual pleasure?" [13] But the LORD said to Abraham: "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I really bear a child, old as I am?' [14] Is anything too marvelous for the LORD to do? At the appointed time, about this time next year, I will return to you, and Sarah will have a son." [15] Because she was afraid, Sarah dissembled, saying, "I didn't laugh." But he said, "Yes you did."

(CCC 158) "Faith seeks understanding" (St. Anselm, Prosl. prooem.: PL 153, 225A): it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith, and to understand better what He has revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love. The grace of faith opens "the eyes of your hearts" (Eph 1:18) to a lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of God's plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other and with Christ, the centre of the revealed mystery. "The same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and more profoundly understood" (DV 5). In the words of St. Augustine, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe" (St. Augustine, Sermo 43, 7, 9: PL 38, 257-258). (CCC 276) Faithful to the witness of Scripture, the Church often addresses her prayer to the "almighty and eternal God" (“omnipotens sempiterne Deus…"), believing firmly that "nothing will be impossible with God" (Gen 18:14; Lk 1:37; Mt 19:26).

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