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Child sacrifices G.D Sunday, December 8, 2013

Question:

Dear Bro.,
Recently we were talking of child sacrifices and another case recently emerged in India ( our home country). My Catholic brother inlaw remarked that it was very prevelant in the olden days and that God Himself in the Old Testament had asked for it. Now how do we argue this? I understand that God didn't let Abraham go through with it. But the fact that God asked of it........... what do I say? We all know it was just to test Abraham and it does have similarities to Jesus's ultimate sacrifice. But why child sacrifice? Just to bring to your knowledge that I am trying to be a good Catholic in a family full of New agers and not so serious Catholics.
Thank you for your time.


Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r), CCL, LTh, DD, LNDC

Dear Sir:

I apologize for the delay in answering your question. I had computer problems.

The true God, the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, never asked for actual child sacrifice, something that was practiced by other peoples. The story of Abraham and Isaac is about a test of the faithfulness of Abraham. God never intended nor would he have allowed Abraham to actually kill Isaac, his son, or if God did allow it, He would have raised Isaac up since the Covenant with Abraham was through Isaac. It was only a test to see if Abraham will give up his son for God.

The story is a pre-figurement to the story of Jesus, the only begotten son of the Father, who voluntarily gave himself up as a sacrificial Lamb for the sins of man, to redeem mankind and give him the opportunity of friendship with God forever.

There is no other instance of God seemingly asking somebody to sacrifice their child. That is because this one instance was a test and not an actual sacrifice. Abraham had faith that God would provide a sacrificial lamb and Isaac would not have to actually die. And, if God allowed Isaac to die, Abraham's faith knew that God would raise Isaac back to life.

The Navarre a Bible commentary says:

God has been true to his promise: he has given Abraham a son by Sarah. Now it is Abraham who should show his fidelity to God by being ready to sacrifice his son in recognition that the boy belongs to God.

The divine command seems to be senseless: Abraham has already lost Ishmael, when he and Hagar were sent away; now he is being asked to sacrifice his remaining son. Disposing of his son meant detaching himself even from the fulfillment of the promise which Isaac represented. In spite of all this, Abraham obeys.

"As a final stage in the purification of his faith, Abraham 'who had received the promises' (Hebrews 11:17) is asked to sacrifice the son God had given him. Abraham's faith does not weaken ('God himself will provide a lamb for a burnt offering'), for he 'considered that God was able to raise man even from the dead' (Hebrews 11:19). And so the father of believers is conformed to the likeness of the Father who will not spare his own son that will deliver him up for us all (cf. Romans 8:32). (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2572).

By undergoing the test which God set, Abraham attains perfection (cf. James 2:21) and he is now in a position for God to reaffirm in a solemn way the promise he had made previously (cf. Genesis12:3).

The sacrifice of Isaac has features which make it a figure of the redemptive sacrifice of Christ. Thus, there is the father giving up his son; the son who surrenders himself to the father's will; and the tools of sacrifice such as the wood, the knife and the altar. The account reaches its climax by showing that through Abraham's obedience and Isaac's non-resistance, God's blessing will reach all the nations of the earth (cf. v. 18). So, it is not surprising that Jewish traditions should attribute a certain redemptive value to Isaac's submissiveness, and that the [Church] Fathers should see this episode as prefiguring the passion of Christ, the only Son of the Father.

Some [Church] Fathers see this ram as a pre-figuremeant of Jesus Christ, insofar as, like Christ, the ram was immolated in order to save man. In this sense, St. Ambrose wrote: "Whom does the ram represent, if not him of whom it is written, 'He has raised up a horn for his people' (Psalm 148:14)? […] Christ: it is he whom Abraham saw in that sacrifice; it was his passion he saw. Thus, our Lord himself says of Abraham: 'Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad' (John 8:56). Therefore Scripture says: 'Abraham called the name of that place 'the Lord will provide,' so that today one can say: the Lord appeared on the mount, that is, he appeared to Abraham revealing his future passion in his body, whereby he redeemed the world; and sharing, at the same time, the nature of his passion when he caused him to see the ram suspended by his horns. The thicket stands for the scaffold of the cross" (De Abraham, 1,8, 77-78).

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary


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