February 28, 2021
2nd Sunday of Lent
We are troubled by our first reading, the Book of Genesis. It is called the testing of Abraham or the binding of Isaac. The words of God to Abraham are shocking: “Take your son, your only one, whom you love, and go the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you.†God’s intention is to test the devotion of Abraham. An angel of God is ready to intervene at the crucial moment and a ram, caught in a ticket, is provided as a holocaust in place of Isaac. We may have in these verses: “Do not lay your hand on the boy… Do not do the least thing to him†a divine pronouncement, a prohibition, against child sacrifices, a gruesome practice in some ancient societies. This command will become part of Jewish Law in the Books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus.
Although the text still troubles us, even when we read commentaries to explain it, we can relate to the testing of Abraham and binding of Isaac. What is most precious to us – a spouse/partner, our family, a child, our health, or way of living? How would we react when what we treasure is now snatched away? Parents do experience the loss of a child. How would we respond to a devastation loss? Will we cry out in grief and anger to God? How can a loving God allow such things to happen?
Our Gospel according to St. Mark recalls the transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a mountain and Jesus becomes dazzling white. Elijah and Moses are conversing with Jesus. Peter blurts out let us set up three tents. A cloud overshadows them, and they hear a voice: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.†Coming down the mountain, Jesus instructs his three apostles not to relate to anyone what happened except when the Son of Man is risen from the dead. Peter, James, and John are given a glimpse of God’s glory shining in and through Jesus as they journey to Jerusalem. It will sustain them as they cry out in disbelief when Jesus dies an excruciating death. They too will ask how can God, the Father, allow his beloved son to die on the cross? St. Paul raises a similar concern in his letter to the Romans: “If God is for us who can be against? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for all of us, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?
Our Sunday Lenten Readings give us reassurance of God drawing closer during times of loss and testing. When we are at the point of disbelief and despair we cry out to Jesus. In the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus cries out on the cross: “My God, my God why have you abandoned me?†It is the opening verse of Psalm 22. What is unsaid on the lips of Jesus are the closing verses of Psalm 22:31-32: “And I will live for the Lord; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.â€
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1st Sunday of Lent
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3rd Sunday of Lent
