It was Sarah’s idea, being advanced in age, that Abraham would father an heir through their slave, Hagar. Hagar naturally accepted the prospect of being mother to Abraham’s heir for she had nothing to lose but gain. And then, the patriarch’s firstborn, Ishmael came to be.
From her deprived status, Hagar became proud that she would levy insults upon Sarah, Abraham’s real wife. She would in fact, teach her son to secretly turn away from Sarah when the time comes. But God in His omniscience knew how to deal with steep pride and came upon Abraham one day to prophesy Sarah’s becoming pregnant. This happened in Mamre where Yahweh came with the two angels who were set out to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. But because Abraham and Sarah were already old at that time it came to Sarah as a joke and she laughed. She was asked why she was laughing but denied it out of embarrassment. But indeed Sarah had a child and they called him Isaac because they laughed in joy.
But as the boys, Ishmael and Isaac grew, Sarah remembered Hagar’s cruel haughtiness and told Abraham to banish Hager and her son Ishmael. This was a great dilemma for the patriarch because Ishmael was his first born but Sarah was right in her demand because Isaac was Yahweh’s gift to them. God reassured Abraham to listen to Sarah for He said He will also make a great nation from Ishmael. And so, even with a heavy heart, Abraham providing the mother and child only with loaf and water banished them away, never to be seen by him again, in
consonance with God’s bidding.
lf we are to take the Mohammedan version, Abrahim or Ebrahim for them went as far as Mecca to be assured of the Egyptian maidservant’s safety with Ishmael (Ismail). Even today, muslims commemorate Hagar’s running to and fro between two jebels (mountains) in desperate search for water so that Ismail can survive. It is clear however that in the Genesis account Abraham no longer accompanied the banished duo. Beersheba where she already was in despair was way too far away from Mecca and this was where she saw a well after an appearance of an angel who reassured her. In the wilderness of Paran where they settled and where Ismail became a great archer is still geographically very far from present day Mecca. In fact, Hagar chose an Egyptian like her to become the wife of Ishmael and if we are logical about things, Egypt is not far from Paran as Arabia is. It is therefore, very plausible to think that the Islamic addendum was meant to establish a link to Abraham, a phraxis no longer necessary as it rather had turned into a clear fabrication.
Incidentally, the Genesis account also reveals the necessity of birth in spirit as Abram and Sarai became more blessed when they were renamed Abraham and Sarah by Yahweh Himself. But in this exegesis I would stick my focus on the patriarch’s role as a pastoral leader, a pastor if one wishes, but since the priesthood role during these times belongs to the patriarchs it shall be my subject.
My thesis therefore is to present today’s priesthood in the light of two rival brothers in their pre-eminence as Abraham’s heir as the one blessed by God to overcome the other. Yet, I won’t write about the rivalry between Christianity and Islam. I would rather focus on Christianity alone and its priesthood.
The church established by Christ is a living entity. Its communion of saints manifested in its continuous fruition of sanctity is proof of this. Its helixes which spread from both east and west may have started its speedy growth with the martyrdom of St. Stephen, and all of the apostles except St John more dramatically in Rome during the time of Nero especially in the martyrdoms of Saints Peter and Paul.
Yet alongside these seeds of faith, the devil also has sown tares and weeds meant to strangle the true faith periodically and persistently. Perniciously they appear as the first born, more original, more pure and devout antiquarian church. They would claim to be Christians but they are anti-christian. They would have serious heresies that claim Christ to be just a man, or that He is only God and cannot be man, or that Christ is just a symbol or a representation of God, or that the Real Presence in the Sacred Bread is just symbolic or was just a memorial and that the sacraments that the saints took pains to defend are just meaningless rituals. Or that any representation of Christ and even of God constitute idolatry, especially the images of saints. They prefer their mathematically-constant logos and ornamentation rather than pictures representing those who are already dwelling in Heaven.
They like to be called Christians but they hate the Mother of Christ and spread malicious rumors against her virginity, purity, humility, obedience and chastity. They like to be called witnesses but they falsify faith. They like to be addressed as saints but despise the real ones for they have blessed incest and rape as good deeds. They have their synagogues named as churches of Christ and God but they make angels out of men and even deify them in defiance of Christ who they only consider as just a man.
These are the new Ishmaelites and their priesthood and pastoral offices though are claimed to be the original church or are revivals of the one which has fallen away. And yet their link is the old religion, the one professed by the fallen angel.
And don’t be surprised when I tell you that they are also present in the militant church claiming a return to nature and in defense of ecology and at the same time babbling about belief as an offshoot of phenomenon and excruciating themselves in which came first; essence or existence, the chicken or the egg. And so now with the updated equipment of modernistic philosophies there Ishmaelites are all around you, laden with their axioms and theorems of whatever angles and polygons they would like to take side with, for as long as they will have the following, how many subscribed or simply how many shared and liked.
They are now your facilitators, counselors, community workers, president of gatherings; anything but the real priest who understands what sacrifice of the mass means. There are the very priests who are proud to be recognized of their Christian origins, which have legitimized them as Ishmael was proud of his Abrahamic origin which made him a real patriarch, but are denying the Real Presence of Christ on Transubstantiation.
But Isaac knew that being a real sacrifice is because for him it isn’t new. Slowly, he realized the great trauma of his father as they ascended Moriah. And when his father started tying him up and there was no lamb in sight, he realized the anguish of his father who was about to lose the only son left after obeying Yahweh and banishing Ishmael. And silently and meekly as lamb would, he kept quiet as his father raised his hand to strike; until the angel stopped him and he caught sight of the ram whose horns were caught in the bush. For indeed, “Yahweh provides.”
But the Ishmaelites, the ever smiling actor priests of novos ordo are more numerous and dominant today. Thanks to the care of the Hagar bishops of today who coach and direct them in their sport and performance. But the Isaacs, the truly acting priests of the Traditional Latin Mass are an endangered species for the Patriarch is willing to sacrifice them for the church to be updated and survive the modern world. But this is not what Yahweh requires even as the end of times draw near.
Yahweh provides. Abraham himself said so. In this very day and age, the wafer bread from the till of the land when consecrated is no longer a bloody sacrifice. Cain was right all along positing the fruits of the land as his offering except that he kept those which are best for himself so that he in turn became a bloody murderer. Today, as the Ishmaelite priests cringe at the thought of even remembering a bloody sacrifice, wanted only a Jewish-like protestant blessing devoid of a bloody sacrifice, the hostia, sacrificial victim. And as they recoil from the Real Presence in His Perpetual Sacrifice, they themselves are amazed at the number of eucharistic miracles trying to show their error.
And as for the Isaacs who know what real victimhood is, I hope and pray that you will persevere unto the end making yourselves ready to become victims just for the Truth to prevail in the church we love until the time that we see that no gate of Hades has prevailed over our beloved church and that indeed Yahweh provides!
– Dr. Ricardo B. de los Santos
