- 5 - of God, even as you do not build bridges unless the number of persons likely to use them warrants their construction. Abraham was chosen as the sourdough and the mustard seed of the faith and of the hope of Redemption, a man of unshakable loyalty to God. Christ communicated with him, at times directly, at times through his spirits, for Abraham was also an incarnated spirit of heaven. Abraham’s devotion to God was soon put to a very severe test. • As is the case with all to whom God thinks of entrusting a particularly important mission. When you humans build a railroad bridge to be used by freight and passenger trains, you also test its capacity before opening the bridge to traffic. If it fails to meet the tests, it is reinforced, and if it proves unsafe even then, it is condemned, and you must build a new bridge. God proceeds similarly in the case of mortals selected to fulfill tasks of importance to His kingdom. If they fail to hold up under His tests, and if His efforts to strengthen them are futile, they are put aside as unfit, and others are selected instead. It often happens that people otherwise fit for God’s great ends must be rejected because of disqualifying defects for which they themselves are responsible, but which they persist in retaining. Many are called, but few are chosen. • Fearsome indeed was the test to which Abraham was put when he was commanded to sacrifice his son, for he who loves his father or mother, his brother or sister, his son or daughter, or his friend more than he loves God is not worthy of God's great gifts or of performing God’s great work. Abraham passed the severe test, and was rewarded with God’s promise: Genesis 22: 16-18: ‘Because you acted as you did and did not withhold your only son from me, I will richly bless you and will make your seed as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore ... and through your seed shall all the peoples of the earth be blessed.’ The seed mentioned in this promise does not refer to Abraham’s human progeny, for that could not have embraced all the nations of the earth and would not have been as numerous as ‘the stars of the heavens and the sand on the seashore.’ God does not exaggerate, and what He says is always the whole truth. Abraham’s descendants were spiritual and would ultimately embrace all of the fallen spirits, in the sense that Abraham’s faith in God and his devotion to Him would little by little extend to all who had forsaken God. Indeed, it would not have proved a blessing to Abraham had he had countless human progeny, who might fall into evil ways. As a matter of fact, in later days whole generations of Abraham’s descendants forsook the true religion and turned to the worship of idols.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI1MzY3