RE: 03.01.12~Readings for Sunday, March 4th-2012

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MARCH 4, 2012
Second Sunday of Lent
READING 1 GN 22:1-2, 9A, 10-13, 15-18
God put Abraham to the test.
He called to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am!" he replied.
Then God said:
"Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah.
There you shall offer him up as a holocaust
on a height that I will point out to you."

When they came to the place of which God had told him,
Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.
Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the LORD's messenger called to him from heaven,
"Abraham, Abraham!"
"Here I am!" he answered.
"Do not lay your hand on the boy," said the messenger.
"Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."
As Abraham looked about,
he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket.
So he went and took the ram
and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.

Again the LORD's messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:
"I swear by myself, declares the LORD,
that because you acted as you did
in not withholding from me your beloved son,
I will bless you abundantly
and make your descendants as countless
as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore;
your descendants shall take possession
of the gates of their enemies,
and in your descendants all the nations of the earth
shall find blessing-
all this because you obeyed my command."
RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19
R. (116:9) I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
I believed, even when I said,
"I am greatly afflicted."
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
READING 2 ROM 8:31B-34
Brothers and sisters:
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all,
how will he not also give us everything else along with him?

Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us, who will condemn?
Christ Jesus it is who died-or, rather, was raised-
who also is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.
GOSPEL MK 9:2-10
Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
"Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
"This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.

SUNDAY READINGS - 2nd Sunday of Lent
FIRST READING: Genesis 22:1-2; 9-13; 15-18. God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."
When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham put forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "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 son, from me." And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, "By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice."
EXPLANATION: Abraham had promptly obeyed the true God, left his pagan kin, kin and country and come to Canaan. God told him he would be the founder of a great race, the Chosen People, from whom God's blessing---the Messiah---would eventually come (Gn. 12: 1-3). To be the founder of a race, Abraham needed to have a son. God let him wait for twenty-four years before he blessed Sarah, his wife, and himself with a son. In all of that time Abraham was faithful to God, but God had one more test for him. When his son Isaac had grown to boyhood, God asked Abraham to offer him in sacrifice at an appointed place. Abraham obeyed promptly once more, but God intervened as Abraham got ready to slay his son. He told Abraham how pleased he was with his ready obedience. He renewed to him once more the promise of a great race, through which the whole world would receive the blessing of God---divine adoption through the incarnation.
God...Abraham: God knew the answer, but he wanted Abraham's faith and trust in God to be an example for his descendants for all time.
only son...love: There were two reasons which made it so difficult for Abraham to obey. First, he loved his only son, as only a father who begot a son in his old age could love and secondly, how could he be father of a great race if his only son was put to death? However, Abraham's love of God overcame his natural love for his son, and his firm faith in the power of God told him that God could still find a way to fulfill the promise of a great race, which he had made to him in his pagan homeland thirty or so years earlier.
a burnt offering: This seems an extraordinary request on the part of God. But in the surrounding pagan lands at that time and for long after, children were offered in sacrifice on pagan altars. God by no means approved of this crime, but the fact that it was happening made it possible for Abraham to think that God really wanted him to sacrifice Isaac.
Abraham, Abraham: As Abraham was just ready to slay his son before burning him on the altar God's messenger calls on him to stop.
you fear God: It was now clear that Abraham was willing to obey God in all things even a thing so difficult and repugnant as this.
a ram...thicket: As the altar was ready, Abraham felt he should offer some sacrifice to God because he had spoken to him there, and so he offered the ram which happened to be within reach.
by myself...sworn: Because of Abraham's fidelity and trust God now renews his promise in a most solemn way---he swears by himself. There was nothing, or no person higher, by whom he could swear or guarantee fulfillment of his promise.
all...themselves: All the peoples of the world would come to know in time that it was through Abraham and his descendant, Christ, that God's privilege of sonship was made available to them (see Heb. 11:12; Rom. 4). They will see Abraham as the human intermediary in God's plan for all men.
APPLICATION: The faith and trust of Abraham in the true God whom he had got to know only late in life, and about whose power and love he did not know a fraction of what we know, should well put us to shame. Abraham left his country, his home, and his kin at a time when one's life depended on the strength of one's clan. He came to a foreign land about which he knew nothing. There he lived among strangers who had no time for invaders and "foreigners." All of this looks easy on paper but what a sacrifice it must have been for Abraham to leave his own people, to travel the long desert journey from Haran in Assyria to Canaan, and then to try to earn his daily bread in unfriendly, if not positively hostile, surroundings. All of this Abraham did because he was convinced of this true God's omnipotence and fidelity to his promises. Abraham was glad of the role that God had chosen for him---the human agent through whom the great divine blessing for all peoples would come.
Abraham's second test of obedience and trust, of which we have just read, was even a more severe trial than the first. He was asked to give up forever his only real son and thereby be unable to fulfill the role God had promised him. Here again Abraham's trust in God gave him the strength and the courage to do what he was told. Abraham's prompt, unquestioning obedience pleased God---he did not have to sacrifice his only Son. His goodwill, his desire and readiness to obey God's command, were proof enough of his justice, fidelity, sanctity.
How many of us could imitate Abraham? How many of us who have seen God the Father sacrificing his beloved Son in his human nature, offering him as sacrifice for our sins on the cross, could or would measure up to Abraham's prompt obedience when God demands some sacrifice of us? How many of us who can devoutly make the Stations of the Cross, and see and feel the insults, degradation, tortures that the innocent Lamb of God suffered for our sins, will turn around soon after and refuse to give up some sinful association, some personal and unlawful gain, some habit of gluttony, or personal animosity against a neighbor? Such unwillingness to sacrifice something much less important than an only son, for the sake of God and our own eternal welfare, is far indeed from the prompt and ready obedience of Abraham.
We all have much to learn from this saintly man who lived nearly four thousand years ago. He is our father in the faith, for it was through his descendants that the knowledge of the true God was preserved on earth, and it was from one of his descendants that our Savior---the Messiah---took his human nature. We should, therefore, remember him with gratitude and we should show that gratitude especially by our endeavors to imitate his spirit of obedience and submission to God's will. Let each one of us look into his or her own heart today. There are desires and plans and attachments there, which God is asking us to sacrifice, to burn up, to destroy during this lent. They are trifling sacrifices compared with that demanded of Abraham, but they are big enough to keep us from true loyalty to God in this life and are a very positive impediment to our entrance into heaven in the next.
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SECOND READING: Romans 8: 31-34. If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?
EXPLANATION: Unlike his other Epistles, which were letters written by Paul to churches that he, or one of his assistants, had evangelized, this letter is to a church that he had not even visited. It is, therefore, less personal and more in the form of an exposition of part (not all) of the Christian message which he had preached in Asia Minor and Greece, and was now anxious to preach to the Romans also. In the section of the letter from which this extract is taken, St. Paul is emphasizing the indwelling of the Spirit in Christians and their freedom from sin, eternal death and the Jewish law. The liberating act of Christ had made them children of God, destined for glory. The Christian is a freeman who lives in hope. His hope is founded on the infinite love of God for men. That love was made manifest in Christ Jesus.
If God...us: He has demonstrated that God is clearly on the side of man. The salvific plan of God which Paul has expounded so far is sufficient proof of this.
who...us: With God on our side, all enemies are powerless against us.
who did...Son: What greater proof of his love for us could God have given us than this, that he handed over his own Son to the death of the cross for our sakes (see 5: 5-8).
all things with him: If he gave his beloved Son to us and for us, he will give everything else that is necessary for our eternal salvation.
bring...against: Christians are God's chosen ones. God is the supreme Judge, who shall dare to bring any charge against them in God's court?
It is God who justifies: The same idea is here repeated.
Is...Jesus: Christ who has made us his brothers by his incarnation, and died on the cross for our sins will not bring a charge against us.
raised...intercedes: Christ who died has been raised from the dead and is now in his glorified humanity in the principal place in heaven. He is interceding for us, that is, he is continuing his activity as Savior. Could he then become our opponent? The answer, of course, is "no."
APPLICATION: These four short verses of St. Paul's letter to the Romans are among the most encouraging and consoling scripture passages in the whole Bible. He tells us God and Christ are entirely in favor of admitting us to heaven. He admits that there are some enemies who would try to prevent us from getting there, but he logically concludes: what can any enemy or number of enemies do if God and Christ are our defending Counsels and Judges? In brief "if God is for us who is against us?" Paul's whole letter is full of proofs that God is for us, the greatest proof of all being the fact of the incarnation and crucifixion of his Son, for us sinners. If God went to those lengths in order to bring us to heaven it is more than logical that he will give us the lesser gifts and the assistance that each one of us needs in order to get there.
The Christian who keeps vivid this consoling knowledge of God's love for him and God's interest in his eternal welfare should never have a sad moment in his life. The things that cause us worry and trouble in life are trifles, when compared with the assurance and certainty we have of final triumph. That assurance comes from God's infinite love, so definitely proved to us by the incarnation. St. Paul goes on in the very next verse after the text which is read today (8: 35): "who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword". . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. . . no created thing can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord."
This is the assurance that St. Paul gives the newly converted Christians of Rome and it was not based on any speculation or wishful thinking, but on the solid proofs of God's love for us which the incarnation so definitely demonstrated. Let no one say: this might be all very true as regards the early Christians, they were full of zeal and full of the love of God; they were not likely to feel all the weaknesses of the flesh and all the attractions of the world which we feel today; life was easier then, they could give more time to the things of God than we can today, the struggle for existence was not so hard for them. St. Paul who knew human nature very well and who had dealt with thousands of converts would deny such statements absolutely. He knew the Roman converts were subject to the same human weaknesses as are all men of all ages. He knew they could, and very likely did, sin occasionally but he also knew that they had been instructed on how to repent of their sins and had enough interest in their eternal welfare to do so.
They had the same weakness that we have, they had the same enemies opposing their salvation. We have the same remedies and protections as they had; they used these remedies and were saved. Shall we not be as active in our own best interests as they were? God is as much for us as he was for the Romans, he wants us in heaven and he has done all that was necessary (and much more) to get us there. If we fail in our final examination one of our greatest causes of grief will be that the fault is completely and entirely our own. We can blame no person or thing in heaven or on earth for our dreadful failure except ourselves. Pray God today, that you shall avoid such grief. You will, if you try always to keep before your mind what God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has done and continues to do daily for you. "If God is with us who is against us?" God is ever with us if we do not deliberately and seriously separate ourselves from him.
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GOSPEL:Mark 9: 2-10. Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud. "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only.
And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.
EXPLANATION: A few days previous to the event narrated here by St. Mark, Jesus had told his disciples of the sufferings and death that awaited him in Jerusalem. "He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests. . .and be killed and after three days rise again (Mk. 8: 31). This statement greatly depressed the Apostles. They still had the wrong idea of their Messiah. They still hoped he would establish an earthly kingdom, that he would use his great powers to subdue all his earthly enemies and that he would set up a triumphant kingdom in Israel. It was while they were in this mood of deep depression that he took Peter, James and John---the same three who were to witness his Agony in the Garden a few months later---to the top of a high mountain. Here he gave them a glimpse of the divine glory which was his, but of which he had "emptied himself," as St. Paul puts it, "taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men, though he was in the form of God" (Phil. 2: 6-7) so that he could, through his life and sufferings as man, redeem and elevate all men.
was...before them: The appearance of Jesus was completely changed; He had become someone entirely different, someone glorious. Even his garments shone with a brilliance and whiteness not of this world: "no fuller on earth could bleach them thus." Jesus allowed his three Apostles a momentary prevision of what his glorified body united to his divinity will be like in heaven.
Elijah, Moses: These were the two outstanding representatives of the Law and the prophets, that is, of the Old Testament. Their presence was an indication that Christ was the promised Messiah.
talking to Jesus: Mark does not mention the subject of this talk but Luke (9: 29) tells us they were speaking of "his departure", his passion and death in Jerusalem.
Peter said: Always the leader and always ready to speak, Peter, beside himself because of the glorious vision, suggests that this should continue forever. Hence the idea of erecting three booths (or tents) in which Jesus, Moses and Elijah could remain. There may have been the thought in his mind that in the eschatological age God would pitch his tent among men (see Ez. 37: 27; Zech. 2: 10-11).
did not...say: This is an indication of the folly of Peter's suggestion.
exceedingly afraid: They knew that they were in the presence of something supernatural and were therefore afraid.
a cloud...them: In the Old Testament a cloud was always the symbol of the presence of the divine majesty. God spoke to the Israelites in the desert from a cloud (Ex. 16:10). He gave the ten commandments to Moses from a cloud (Ex. 19: 16). He manifested his presence in the newly-built temple of Solomon in a cloud "which filled the house of the Lord" (3 Kgs. 8: IO).
a voice came: From out of the cloud God proclaimed that Christ was his beloved Son whom the Apostles must hear and obey: "listen to him."
no longer...Jesus only: St. Matthew tells us the Apostles fell on their faces when they heard the voice of God from the cloud---they were terrified and wanted to hide themselves. Matthew also adds that Jesus then came to them and told them to rise up and not to be afraid. The only one they saw when they stood up and opened their eyes was Jesus in his ordinary human appearance.
he charged them: On their way down from the mountain Jesus commanded the three Apostles to tell nobody what they had witnessed until:
the Son...dead: After the resurrection they would understand that Jesus was more than man and more than a human Messiah. This vision would then have a clear meaning for them and for those to whom they would tell it.
rising...meant: They kept this secret from all others but they discussed it among themselves, and they were especially puzzled by Jesus' mention of his resurrection from the dead. This puzzlement was not about the possibility of the resurrection of all men---for like the vast majority of their contemporary Jews, they had no doubts about an eventual resurrection from the dead---but how could Jesus rise from the dead when they were convinced that he could not die. He had power over all things, he had raised others from the dead, and this vision they had just seen proved how close to God he was, so how could he die? Nothing else but the actual death of Jesus on the cross was able to convince his Apostles that he would or could die.
APPLICATION: This vision of Christ glorified, given to these Apostles on Mount Thabor (the traditional site of Transfiguration) was surely a very special privilege, and it was one they did not forget. "We saw his glory," St. John says in his gospel, written over sixty years later. In his epistles John also refers to this privilege (1 Jn. 1: 1-4). St. Peter, writing from Rome to the churches in Asia Minor about thirty years later, mentions this outstanding experience: "For we were not following fictitious tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when from out the majestic glory a voice came down to him saying: 'this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.' And this voice we ourselves heard borne from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain" (2 Pt. 1:16-18).
Yes, the three Apostles were privileged and we too are sharers in their privilege. The Transfiguration of Christ is but one among many of the incontrovertible proofs of the divine Sonship of Christ which we have in the gospel narratives and in the twenty centuries-long history of the Church which he founded. Were he not divine, that Church would long since have crumbled and fallen under the many vicious assaults from outside which it has undergone, as well as from the many human weaknesses which have beset it from within. But Christ is God and the Church has his divine protection and assistance. Therefore, it will go on to the end of time to continue his work of elevating and redeeming mankind.
This enlightening glimpse of Christ's future glory---a glory in which they would share---was given to these Apostles to strengthen and encourage them in the terrible test of their faith which the passion and death of Jesus would be for them very soon. It is for a similar reason that the Church orders this story of the Transfiguration to be read to us during this season of Lent. We are or should be mortifying ourselves during this season. This mortification can earn for us a glorious and unending future life. To encourage us to continue it, we are reminded that the One we are following, the One whose voice we listen to, is none other than the Son of God. There are the voices of many false prophets shouting around us, telling us to enjoy ourselves in this life, to "eat, sleep, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die," but there is the rub---tomorrow we shall die, but where shall we go then?
Let us thank our divine Lord today, for giving this consoling and encouraging vision of his glory to his Apostles and through them to us. It was for them, and it is for us, a guarantee and a foretaste of the joys and the glory that will be ours for eternity, if we but persevere in our struggles against the world, the flesh and the devil. This struggle is not easy for our weak nature, but our loving Savior is ever beside us to "raise us up and tell us not to fear" if we but rely on him. When we are tempted to give way to our human weaknesses, or to give way under the weight of the crosses that sometimes are about to crush us, let us think of Mount Thabor, and the glorified Jesus, who a few weeks later faced his own real passion and cross cheerfully for our sakes. This thought will help us to carry our crosses as the thought of the future glory which will be ours should make us thank God that we have been created and thank his beloved Son for setting us on the road to that future glory.b122
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