Like Abraham

Read Time:5 Minute, 40 Second

Consideration for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, year C2

In the midday sun, three of them came, in the quivering hot air they appeared in front of Abraham’s tent. (Did the Grandfather only greet the weary travelers? Why then did he say to the Three, “Lord?” He knew …).

And then, after they had washed their feet and ate, they predicted the birth of the long-awaited son of the Promise, when Sarah laughed at this prophecy, naming the firstborn and only, when all these things had happened – it turned out, that Troisty didn’t come for that purpose only.

God was looking for a friend in man with whom he wanted to share his decision about the terrible punishment for the bad city and the bad people. He could do it from his heights without notifying anyone – because the sentence had already been passed … And yet he wanted to talk.

Sodom and Gomorrah. A nest of evil, vice, and sin. The Lord has come to see if he is really that. Did he have to? Has he not seen? Was it just the moans from the lowlands?

He both saw and knew because he knows everything and sees everything, but he wanted to EXPERIENCE. He wanted to enter the very heart of evil and suffering of these people. Incurable in love, he will experience human fate much more intensely, and at the same time eventually in a few thousand years … although He Himself was both in Sodom and in Jerusalem, which was not yet there.

So Two went to experience… and that is a separate story.

And One stayed, because he waited for the words of the chosen one. What an amazing moment in history! What a Meeting – an announcement of all meetings! How much love, how much sweet patience in this God’s expectation … What anticipating tenderness – to let man speak in defense of man. The man he woven in the belly of his mother, whom he so miraculously created, whom he gave the Name, that now this chosen one, an old nomad, could begin the most beautiful market in the universe with him, the Lord and Creator …

You knew his questions and answers to them, and yet he listened carefully and answered very matter-of-factly.

Abraham, as usual (from the beginning of his story, when the Voice heard it) is completely alone in this dialogue, not understood by anyone: alone with the Lord.

This loneliness in everything – decisions, conversations, actions, suffering – is the price he paid for such a direct and intimate contact with the Creator. So now, without consulting anyone, he starts a bargain by himself.

The forefather of all traders – the archetype of a bribe bargaining to the last word … for the life of the city.

There is no longer a market with a Jewish market in small towns, there are no chackers waving their hands, gripped in the drama of bargaining five cents more … But when they were there, at such moments the spirit of the forefather Abraham entered them. Bruno Schulz knew this when he described his merchant father, who wrestles with a customer like Jacob with an Angel, and is left with a memento of his broken hip; how Abraham bargains with God for his city-kingdom: the fabric shop; even as the Creator himself creates the universe from fabrics …

This vibrating, singing, full of heat and color world of the Jewish market has gone out; it can sometimes be heard in the shop when the owner adds a cookie to the huge shopping bag; even in a cold Rossmann, when they tell you to buy a soap or a shampoo at the checkout, and finally they slyly put a free bag of cream in your bag for everything … because you deserve a generous purchase and obligated to give you a gift – you will come back. Somewhere in all these mercantilized activities wanders the inaudible echo of that prayer-market …

After all, Abraham could have fallen on his knees and immediately begged the Lord to depart from the city. But no. He’s sensible. He is cautious and the merchant’s genius enters him. Auction. He starts at fifty, then lowers the stake for the next five and ten, starting all over again. And you obviously like it. The Lord allows it, is patient and probably smiles … With what love he listens to the persistent and monotonous Abraham, trying to diversify this monotony of requests with beautiful opening phrases … What an elegant dialogue!

Abraham does not know yet that those Two who went to experience evil in Sodom have already experienced its abominations and horrors … they are already sure that they have come to save only the one righteous one. Already decided, Lot leaves, Lot’s wife is just turning into a salt pillar, unable to tear herself away from the past. The Lord sees the whole, but hears Abraham’s devoutly cunning pleas with calm and respect. “Let me dare, though I am dust” … “Forgive me if the servant asks you again …”, “Forgive me if I dare to ask you again …” Five more and more … realized how much He can yield to man in His mercy.

“And for the ten righteous I will not destroy the city.”

So ten will be enough to save the world!

There weren’t that many there, but what a hope!

When our frightened hearts fall into despair and hopelessness, when it seems to us that the end, ashes, ashes and columns of salt will only remain…, let us look for the righteous. When the Lord takes one of them, let us quickly look for the next one … and when they are missing – let us become so ourselves. Actually, there is no need to wait: be fair, because it may turn out that you are just the tenth … and thanks to you the world will save! The first man of God asked for it in great solitude! With this request-market-prayer, he obligated you and me to become righteous … For who, if not you and me, will save Sodom, crushed with disgustingness, our wonderful world …?

And above all, let us be like Abraham, even if we happen to act in solitude. Let us ask, let us beat ourselves up, let us wake up at night, let us disturb the Lord with great power, let us bother ourselves, let us bang on this bolted door until it opens! Let’s make a mess! He is waiting. He also knocks on the other side to open it. He is waiting for our persistence to achieve its goal! Let us never, ever lose hope, let us not stop our prayers, let us not give up! Maybe at least one can be saved.

And whoever saves one life saves the whole world.