We’re reading the biographies of Jewish Saints these days– stories of the patriarchs, their wives and times, from the Book of Genesis. The story we read today about Abraham, Sarah and Hagar is not the story you think of when you think of saints.

It’s a shocking story. After arranging for Hagar to become the concubine of Abraham and Hagar bearing him a son, (Genesis 16) Sarah turns on Hagar and demands that Abraham drive her away. She wants Isaac, her son, to be without a rival.

Sarah noticed the son whom Hagar the Egyptian
had borne to Abraham
playing with her son Isaac;
so she demanded of Abraham:
“Drive out that slave and her son!
No son of that slave is going to share the inheritance
with my son Isaac!”
Abraham was greatly distressed,
especially on account of his son Ishmael.
But God said to Abraham: “Do not be distressed about the boy
or about your slave woman.
Heed the demands of Sarah, no matter what she is asking of you;
for it is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name.
As for the son of the slave woman,
I will make a great nation of him also,
since he too is your offspring.”

Early the next morning Abraham got some bread and a skin of water
and gave them to Hagar.
Then, placing the child on her back, he sent her away.
As she roamed aimlessly in the wilderness of Beer-sheba,
the water in the skin was used up.
So she put the child down under a shrub,
and then went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away;
for she said to herself, “Let me not watch to see the child die.”
As she sat opposite Ishmael, he began to cry.
God heard the boy’s cry,
and God’s messenger called to Hagar from heaven:
“What is the matter, Hagar?
Don’t be afraid; God has heard the boy’s cry in this plight of his.
Arise, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand;
for I will make of him a great nation.”
Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water.
She went and filled the skin with water, and then let the boy drink.

God was with the boy as he grew up.(Genesis 21:8-20)

No one looks good in this story.

The Jewish biographies of saints don’t hesitate to tell their dark sides in the scriptures.. Even God’s words and actions are puzzling here..

Pope Francis offers a caution in “Gaudete et exultate”:  “Not everything a saint says is completely faithful to the Gospel; not everything he or she does is authentic or perfect. What we need to contemplate is the totality of their life, their entire journey of growth in holiness, the reflection of Jesus Christ that emerges when we grasp their overall meaning as a person.” (22)

Saints are imperfect people; the world is imperfect. God is a potter who works in mud.