As a brief introduction: Honored on the calendar of saints today is St. Cyril of Alexandria. A man of the 4th century, Cyril was a monk, priest and eventually the bishop of Alexandria (Egypt). His major word was his continual challenging of the Nestorians (+451). These people rejected the hypostatic union -- that Jesus was both God and Man. Consequently that refused to accept Mary as "Mother of God." The Church condemned the heresy at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Cyril died in 444. Now to the readings from today's Mass.

The Scriptures for today's liturgy bring us once again to what we should honestly consider more often than we do: our personal faith and trust in God. In the first reading, continuing the very interesting Genesis story, we are dealing with perhaps one of the great models of faith and trust: Abraham.

Abraham and wife, Sara, are similar to Zachariah and Elizabeth. God had promised them an offspring yet late in life there was none for Abraham and Sara. The couple were instructed to take to the road ... God's ultimate plan being to bring them to Canaan. In the course of the lengthy journey and events that intervened before Isaac was born, Abraham, "our father in faith," showed how human he was. Often in the Old Testament, we find that the "chosen ones" are often bested by outsiders. Abraham, because of challenges that he confronted on his journey of life and faith, failed to trust God, living as he felt it most expedient to live. The small seed of faith, we see in his life, is good enough for God because God's covenant with humankind is not based on how strong, good or even faithful the person is. Abraham's life should be one well known by anyone of us who finds himself succumbing to weaknesses from time to time. His life is truly a model not only of his faith and trust in God but of God's never-ending love for us no matter how many times we may fall along that narrow roadway that was mentioned in yesterday's reflection. Interesting, isn't it?