2^nd  Sunday of Lent (B); February 25, 2024

Gen 22:1-2,9a, 10-13. Ps 116. Rom 8:31b-6:34. Mk 9:2-10

Deacon Jim McFadden

During the 2nd Sunday of Lent we come across a most troubling story in the first reading that is traditionally called the “Binding of Isaac.” The story is terrible, not just because it involves human sacrifice, not that it shows the willingness of a father to kill his own son—all of that is bad enough; but it’s terrible because it seems to set God against himself.

Remember that Isaac is the miracle son of Abraham and Sarah in their old age. Isaac is the son of God’s promise, the one through whom Abraham would become the father of many nations; Isaac becomes the necessary person for the salvation history narrative to be advanced. In short, without Isaac, the story comes to an end before it even gets traction.

Now, we do know that the story has a happy ending: Abraham is willing to go through with the sacrificial ritual; Isaac is freed at the very last moment; and so, Abraham is rewarded for his fidelity. But, no one really feels good about this incident.

Bob Dylan conveyed this discomfort in his classic album Highway 61 Revisited (1965) when we hear:

Oh, God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”

Abe said, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”

God said, “No,” Abe say, “What?”

God say, “You can do what you want, Abe, but

The next time you see me comin’, you better run”

Well, Abe said, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”

God said, “Out on Highway 61”

Today, we’re standing before the same God who made this request of Abraham. Do we run or do we stay? We ask ourselves: what is that God wants of Abraham? What does God want of us? Simply put, He asks obedience, which means “to listen to” (from the Latin derivative ‘obediere‘) is absolutely essential to the Biblical perspective. Remember that Original Sin followed from the primal act of disobedience, not abiding by God’s command. The great Shema prayer from Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is your God, the Lord alone…”. Is about listening. Once we hear what God wants of us, then we do it—we obey. But, here’s the tricky part: God is essentially mysterious: “As high as the mountains are above the earth, my thoughts are above your thoughts, my ways above your ways, says the Lord” (Is 55:9). We cannot even in principle fully understand what God is up to, what God’s purposes are. His commands, which are always good because He is perfect Love, are often opaque to us. What God commands we often do not understand. What God insists upon, we don’t grasp. To put it bluntly, as St. Augustine once put it, “If you think you understand God, that’s not God.”

This is precisely why we have to obey, why we have to listen, why we have to abide by what God demands. And, this is Abraham’s stunning virtue: he was willing to obey and trust even when that obedience seemed the height of folly. Even when obedience seemed to set him against God and God against himself. He trusted because he knew that God is love and he also knew that God’s ways are often baffling to us.

I think this why  Holy Mother Church pairs the Binding of Isaac with the Transfiguration. For Abraham, obedience would eventually bring forth a nation from whom a Savior of the world would emerge. For Jesus, his binding would happen on the Cross in  which he brings about the salvation of the world. His offering would lead to glory.

Our Lord Jesus knew that the outcome of His mission through the Cross would not be immediately understood by his disciples. So, right before He enters His Passion, Jesus chooses to give Peter, James, and John a foretaste of His glory, which He will have after the Resurrection. Jesus knew that Good Friday would be devastating experience for all those who cared and loved Him. Jesus wants to confirm them in faith and encouraging them to stay with Him on the trying path, on the Way of the Cross.

Just as Abraham went through inner turmoil right before the pending sacrifice of Isaac, Jesus wants to reassure his followers that God’s Way can be trusted even all seems lost. Thus, on a high mountain (always a metaphor for the intense experience of the presence of God), immersed in prayer with His Father, Jesus is transfigured before them. Unlike Moses who reflected the presence of God in his countenance, Jesus radiated God’s presence from within: his whole person radiated the Light of God.

The three disciples are frightened by this singular unique experience. And, as a cloud envelopes them, the Father’s voice sounds from a transcendent  reality–the same voice the spoke at Jesus’ baptism at the Jordan: “This is my beloved Son; listen to Him” (Mk 9:7). Jesus is the Son of God, who comes to us as a Servant. He was sent into the world to save us through the Cross, fulfilling God’s plan for salvation that historically began with the Call  of Abraham. When Jesus predicted his Passion and Death three times, He was preparing His disciples for the Paschal Mystery. So, the Father says, “Listen to Him.” When we do, we will fully adhere to God’s will  which rendered Jesus’ humanity fully transparent to the glory of God, Who is Love.

Brothers and sisters, to listen to Jesus entails taking up the logic of the Paschal Mystery. Oftentimes, we won’t fully understand as it unfolds in our life. But, since our Baptism, we have set out on a journey in which we know our destination–our lives have an unsurpassed purpose. And, we make this journey with, in, and through Jesus, in which we live as He does: we make ourselves a gift to others through the docile obedience to the Father’s will. We do with complete abandonment just as Abraham did on the mountain and just as Jesus did in the Garden Gethsemane.  To follow Jesus’ Way of the Paschal Mystery, we must be willing “to lose one’s very life” (Mk 8:35) by giving everything up so that others might be saved. This path, which can often be mysterious and befuddling, always leads to Life…always leads to Happiness. Remember that: Jesus’ Way leads to Happiness and there will always be a Cross. Moreover, they’re not mutually exclusive; indeed, trials and dying to Self always leads to Happiness. Jesus would not deceive us. That’s why the Father said, “Listen to Him.”

 Let us pray to Mary Most Holy that she may help us listen to hear Son, that she may help us to welcome the Light of Christ with wonder, to safeguard it and share it with others. Amen.