(Homily 2nd Sunday of Lent
–Year B)
In exception of what I
read and see on movies about mountains, I never knew the existential importance
of mountains, until my experience at the Northern part of Italy. There, people
go to the mountain for relaxation, to enjoy the beauty of nature, to enjoy
fresh and uncontaminated air, it is a place of peace, tranquility and rest. It
does not only introduce one in a wonderful contact with nature, it also leads
to the imagination of the brain behind such beauty, and as such to the Creator.
In the Sacred scriptures, the mountain
is a place of encounter between God and man. It is equally a place of prayer
and divine manifestation. When I remember the first time I climbed a
mountain, I recognize the reason why God asked Abraham to go to mount Moriah
for the sacrifice of his son Isaac and the aim of Jesus for climbing the
mountain, without being told. Extrapolating from our readings today, it
behooves us to affirm that the scenario and context for today’s message is the
mountain: Mount Moriah and the High Mountain as portrayed by St. Mark (Isaac for sacrifice and Jesus for transfiguration).
Be
that as it may, every second Sunday of Lent the Church invites us to reflect on
the episode of Jesus’ Transfiguration. For
his Transfiguration is an indication that we his followers should also strive
to be transfigured, to change in mind and heart.
The first reading (Gn.22:1-2.9a10-13.15-18) is a
masterpiece on God’s faithfulness and Abraham’s correspondence. It presents the emblematic passage of the sacrifice
of Isaac, which as a matter of fact, was for the early church a prototype of
Christ’s death.
Therein, we were told about the experience of childlessness of Abraham and his
wife Sara for many years. However, they believed that God will bless them one
day, even though they were troubled. Their faith in God never wavered. At the
appointed time God blessed them with a son, they named him Isaac. Surprisingly,
when the child was coming of age something happened. God asked Abraham to take
his only son Isaac to a specified place where he would be killed and used as a
victim for a sacrifice to God. Abraham
did not ask God why he should do so. He simply took the child and the other
materials for the sacrifice and left to Mount Moriah, which means God will
provide. Moriah was the destination
for the sacrifice. And upon reaching there, when he was about killing the child
for the sacrifice, then “the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and
said, “Abraham, Abraham!”…Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to
him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son,
your only-begotten son, from me…And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and
behold, behind him was a ram”.
God asked Abraham to sacrifice his
only son, not as if God takes pleasure in the sacrifice of human blood, rather
it was a test of Abraham’ faith. The event of Abraham’s demonstration of faith
teaches us two important things: It forbids the practice of human sacrifice in
any form and emphasizes on the importance of sacrifice. Just like Abraham was
set to offer something very precious to him, we need to acquire the same
attitude, our sacrifice must touch us to our inner most being, it must pinch
us, else it risks becoming a mere religious observance. True sacrifice is not
all about giving or sacrificing from our abundance, rather from our scarcity
and from our hearts too. It is on this
basis that we can posit that the selfless gesture of love of Abraham who wanted
to sacrifice his only son, Isaac can be considered a parallel to God’s love for
mankind in offering his only Son to save the world.
The event of the sacrifice of Isaac must
have fostered St. Paul to affirm in the second reading (Rm. 8:31b-34) that “God did not spare his own Son but gave him up
for us all”. Upon proper gaze in the story of Isaac’s sacrifice, we have come
to comprehend, at the second level that the interest of the episode lies not
merely on the test of Abraham’s faith (cf
Heb 11:17) as portrayed in Judaism, nor on the abandonment of human
sacrifice. Rather the interest was often put together with emphasis on Isaac’s
voluntary surrender of his life. And as a matter of fact, an atoning undertone was attributed to this voluntary surrender of his
life by Isaac.
Drawing the issue further, St. Paul takes
up the pattern of paternal self-sacrifice to show the density of God’s love for
mankind. For in the person and the works of the Son, we experience deeply the
immensity of the father’s love. Who “did not spare his own Son, but gave him up
for us all”. In the immensity of his
love, God does not withhold anything for himself, he gives all in and with love.
It was upon discovering this that St. Paul vehemently questioned: “who can
separate us from the love of God?” With this assurance of faith we can stand
our ground before any kind of persecution, difficulties and challenges in life.
In all, His love super abounds!
In this passage of the epistle, St. Paul
raises a number of rhetoric questions, in those questions he highlights all
that God in Christ has done and is still doing for us. He affirmed that “God
did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all” (Rm. 8:32), and this points to the event of Isaac and it is equally
connected with the intercession of Christ in heaven (cf. Rm.34b). What Roman 8:32 means is
that God gave up what is most precious to Him. We have the confirmation of the
value God placed on his Son Jesus Christ in the Gospel reading where he said:
“this is my beloved son; listen to him”. Indeed,
God gave up His “Isaac” so that we can be pardoned and redeemed.
The gospel passage (Mk. 9:2-10) is the Markan version of the transfiguration of Jesus.
The word transfiguration simply means change of figure, and
symbolically, it is an anticipation of
the resurrection. Put in another way, it means giving up the present figure
and obtaining another one. He transfigured before them or He changed in
appearance. And then the voice of the Father from the clouds reveals who Jesus
is: “This is my Son, my beloved. Listen to Him.” God the Father reveals that
Jesus is not only a man, He is also God. The context of the transfiguration event, is a place
where God declared the mission of the Son: “This is my beloved Son, listen
to him”. After the father’s voice, Jesus
readily climbed down from the mountain of glory to the valley of human
predicament and suffering. While he was coming down from the mountain Jesus
ordered his disciples not to talk about the transfiguration until after his
resurrection. This therefore, entails that the full meaning of the cross will
be comprehended only in the light of the resurrection. And after this moment of
obscurity, the gospel presents a luminous moment, on which we have to fix our
gaze especially in difficult and bloody moments of life.
In his narrative, Mark provides a number of
factors peculiar to his gospel: ●Mark unlike the other synoptic did not mention
the change of Jesus’ face. ●He emphasized on the whiteness of Jesus garments.
●He places the name of Elijah before that of Moses (v.4a). ●He stressed on
Peter’s bewilderment and lack of understanding (v.6). ●He maintains that the
three disciples were also bewildered about his allusion to the resurrection of
the dead (v.10). ●There was equally a command of silence until after the
resurrection, Mathew reported this command, but Luke omitted it. ●Mark laid
emphasis on the incomprehension of Jesus by the disciples and the command to
silence, which is in connection with the Markan messianic secret. Although in
the previous chapters it was addressed to those healed from diseases and to
Demons, but in our present context it is addressed to the disciples.
Be that as it may, one may ask the essence
of this command. The essence of this command boils down to the fact that Mark
intends to formulate an understanding of the person of Jesus Christ (his
Christology). At the heart of Marks
understanding, is the conception of Jesus as the suffering Son of man, opposed
to a popular understanding of him as one with divine powers manifested in the
miracles and culminates in the transfiguration event. Another second
question we may ask is this: why do the disciples fail to understand? They seem
to be representatives of the church at that time, which was more attracted to
Jesus’ epiphany of divine powers. However, like the blind man of the eightieth
chapter, they will gradually understand that Jesus is not merely the epiphany
of God, but also the suffering Son of God. In all, the final disclosure is that
the true disciples will come after the resurrection (14:28; 16:7); when they will see the Risen Lord in Galilee. For it
will lack logicality, if the transfiguration is disclosed before the death and
resurrection, that would imply glory without the cross. At the heart of this narrative is the age-long assertion: “No cross, no
crown”.
Above all, brethren, to experience transfiguration one needs to let go certain things at the
foot of the mountain. The Lenten season therefore, is a period of mountain
climbing. The time we are required to let go of certain things and let God in.
There will be no transfiguration unless there is a decisive letting go of the
contending factors in our life and the ill-behaviours. We are transfigured when
we live for God and not just for ourselves. In all, the psalmist concludes with
stupendous words in Ps.116
thus “You have loosed my bonds”. This focuses on the deliverance of a righteous
man, thereby recalling the liberation and deliverance of Isaac. With this in
mind we pray God to loosen every form of bonds in our life, as we continue our
Lenten journey. May His presence be manifested in our difficult moments as in
the case of Abraham and Isaac. May He speak for us in decisive moments of our
life. Amen!!!
(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)
No comments:
Post a Comment