THE SECOND SUNDAY
OF LENT
(Genesis 22:
1-2.9-13.15-18; Romans 8: 31-34; Mark 9: 2-10)
The woman was
commenting on the Lord's Prayer. She said that she was willing to accept all
that is God's will. But she - she added - "may God not have something bad
happen to my children." Abraham certainly has the same attitude in the
first reading. The last thing he wants is for something bad to happen to his son
Isaac.
The Jews call this
passage in Genesis "the binding of Isaac." They say that the story is
the most powerful in the book. God really asks Abraham to kill his own son! The
text adds that the petition is a test. But it does not specify the purpose of
such a morbid test. It seems exaggerated, inconceivable of God. Anyway, Abraham
passes the test. He shows that he is willing to sacrifice even his own son his
if God asks.
We Christians have
another way to understand this story. It is not so much a test of Abraham but a
parable expressing the love of God. As much as he asks Abraham to offer Isaac
as a sacrifice, God has offered his own son to the world. However, where God is
good and does not allow Abraham to kill his son, the world is cruel. It will
kill Jesus for interfering with the established order of religion. The gospel
gives us a glimpse of God's offering to the world.
Jesus has gone up the
mountain with three disciples. There he is transfigured so that all three see
his divinity. One commenter says it is not so much a transfiguration as a show
of transparency. The three companions see the depths of Jesus for the first time
and perceive his divinity. The clothes of Jesus turning "splendidly
white" testify to this fact. They
become like the dress of the Ancient of Days sitting on his throne in the book
of the prophet Daniel (Daniel 7:9).
The disciples will
need this vision of glory during the ordeal to come. They will see Jesus
captured, tried, and executed as an insurgent. Now they have been assured for
the future that he is not a false hero but the true Son of God. We need this
vision for another reason.
We live in
increasingly anti-Christian times. Many if they are not afraid at least they do
not want to publicly acknowledge their faith in God. We will not be pursued for
going to Mass on Sunday. But living our faith the other six days of the week may
cause us problems. Recently Twitter “froze” the account of a Catholic news
service. The "offense" evidently was that the new service reported
for its readers the news that President Biden appointed a biological man who
identifies himself as a transgender woman to a high office in the Department of
Health. Twitter said that posting the matter constituted "hateful
conduct." Probably because of the clamor it created, the freeze didn't
last long. Still we wonder why Twitter judges the publication of the report as
"hateful." Isn't it alarming news when a high official thinks he can
change his gender? Certainly this official, like everyone else, deserves
respect as a human person. But we should be concerned when a person who
challenges the nature of his own body occupies a position where he can
influence many others to do the same.
In the passage God has
a message for both us and the disciples. He says that Jesus “is my beloved Son;
listen to him.” Jesus commands us to proclaim from the rooftops what he tells
us in private. First and foremost, his message is always God's love for
everyone. As Saint Paul says in the second reading, God "is" ready to
give us everything, together with his Son. Second, Jesus instructs us how to
respond to this love by not satisfying our cravings but by giving ourselves to
others in love.
From the beginning the
challenge for Christians has been how to be in the world without being of the
world. We can express this challenge in another way: how can we love the world
without being corrupted by the world? As the smartest kids in religion classes
know, the answer is usually "Jesus." We have to reflect on the ways
of Jesus so that we might put them into practice daily.
