What God can do

In today’s first reading (Genesis 21:5, 8-20a), the grandmother of Israel has the ancestor of the Arabs expelled.

Israel’s grandmother, of course, was the wife of Abraham (the grandfather of Israel – also known as Jacob) and the ancestor of the Arabs was Ishmael, who was Abraham’s son by a concubine.

It would be a terrible over-simplification to say that this was the beginning of a family feud that rages even today.

Even so, the events recounted in this passage sound bad enough to our ears: not just slavery but actually sending a mother and child out into a desert with just some bread and water. The water quickly runs out and the mother despairs, even walking away from her child so that she would not see him die.

In this case, God comes to the assistance of the mother and her child, who would indeed become the father of a great nation.

As I indicated earlier, in some ways, this story of the bifurcated descendants of Abraham continues today, with great bloodshed, and indeed there are some who despair of a happy ending.

Yet, just as God heard the cry of Ishmael, he will hear the cry of all his people.

Just as God rescued that mother and child from their hopelessness in the desert, so too will he rescue his faithful people, no matter how hopeless our situations may ever become.