Second Sunday of Lent Year B

Second Sunday of Lent Year B

First Reading: Genesis 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18

Second Reading: Romans 8:31-34

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 116:10, 15-19

Gospel: Mark 9:2-10

From the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son, Listen to him.” In a world of many different competing voices, the greatest temptation of the Church in the modern and pluralistic world is to assert that there are many different voices and paths to God. The Gospel tells us, “A cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son, Listen to him.” The cloud symbolism indicates that the voice is the voice of God, the Father of Jesus Christ. He identified Jesus as His beloved Son. ‘In the past, God spoke to man through the prophets and in many different ways, but in our times, he has spoken definitively to us through his son’ (Hebrew 1:1).

After the announcement of his passion, to strengthen the faith of his disciples, Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a mountain apart by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. He offers them a glimpse of His glory as the Son of God. And there appeared to them, Moses and Elijah conversing with Jesus. Some Fathers of the Church have said that the appearance of Moses and Elijah symbolizes the continuity of God’s plan in the ministry of Moses and Elijah and that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. But more than that, it reinforces the revelation of the divinity of Christ. Moses and Elijah were Old Testament figures who encountered God on the mountain. They wanted to see the face of God but were could not. Moses said to God, “Let me see your glory.” God responded, “I will make all my goodness pass before you …. You cannot see my face because man cannot see me and live” (Exodus 33: 18 &20). When Elijah fled from Jezebel, he reached the same mountain of the Lord where Moses had encountered the Lord, Mount Horeb also known as Mount Sinai. Waiting for the Lord to pass by, there came a windstorm which rent the mountains and broke the rocks into pieces, but the Lord was not in it. Then came the earthquake, but the Lord was not in it. After the earthquake, fire came but the Lord was not in it. Elijah perceived the presence of God in the murmur of a gentle breeze and covered his face with his cloak (1 Kings 19: 9-13). Moses and Elijah are now able to see the face of God whom they could not see in the Old Testament because God has become man.

In the transfiguration, Jesus wanted to strengthen the faith of the apostles in him and “remove the scandal of the cross from the heart of his disciples,” as St Leo the Great said, He also wants it to be a source of encouragement to all believers especially those who suffer for the sake of Christ, because the glory revealed at the transfiguration is also a sign of the glory that awaits all those who will believe in Jesus and listen to him. St. Paul tells us in the second reading, ‘If God did not spare His own Son but handed him over to die for us, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?

Abraham believed in God and God showed himself true to His promise. In the first reading, God asked Abraham to show his fidelity to Him by sacrificing his only son. Think about the pain this could have caused him; he is being asked to detach himself even from the fulfillment of the promise that Isaac represented.  Abraham obeys, and God blesses him and reaffirms the promise He had already made to him. In his willingness to sacrifice his only son, Abraham is conformed to the likeness of God who will not spare his only Son but will deliver him up for us all. The sacrifice of Isaac becomes a figure of the redemptive sacrifice of Christ. In both cases, we have a father who is giving up his son and a son who surrenders himself to his father’s will. The story of Abram reminds us of the sacrifice that we all are called to make especially as we journey through Lent. Just as Abraham was willing to offer his only son in obedience to God, we too are called offer ourselves, to surrender our own will and desires to listen to the Son of God. He alone is the only way to the Father.

Happy Sunday,

Fr Chidi Onwuka m.ss.cc.