Second Sunday
of Lent
27-28 February
2021, St. Mary’s in Salem
Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18
Rom 8:31b-34
Mk 9:2-10
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
In the Second Reading today we hear from
St. Paul:
Divine advocacy! God Himself pleading
our cause! The world to which St. Paul refers in his letter to the Romans is often
quite foreign to us in our everyday life. The priorities of people even within
the community of believers have changed in recent times. Basically, while some
people out there today are worried about being judged or condemned by God, it
is not the prevailing sentiment in Christian society, as a lot of people are
not focused at all on the coming judgment. For that reason, many people experience
no particular sense of relief in receiving the assurance that God is on our
side and will see that we are not condemned.
Yes, it is too often the case that people are anxious about
societal approval, but when it comes to eternal salvation, they are just plain
indifferent or dull. This indifference to the things of God and to the prospect
that at the end of our days on earth we will have to answer before Him is a
characteristic of practical atheism, defined as living, thinking, or behaving
as if God did not exist or, at any rate, somehow did not really count.
If that sounds too brutal, let me say it
another way. It is hard to imagine a lot of people in the Western world
troubling themselves over the demands of discipleship – over what it means to
follow Christ or to be caught up in a relationship with the Almighty. A felt
need to sort things out and get them right with God, such as we experience of
Abraham in the Genesis passage for today or in Jesus’ concern for his three
chosen disciples in St. Luke’s account of the Transfiguration are not what move
people generally in society.
“Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.”
Our Gospel today recounts the great
mystery of our Lord transfigured in glory conversing with Moses and Elijah! That
mysterious and awe-inspiring event took place up on one of the highest
elevations in Galilee, in this case on Mount Tabor. Our Old Testament reading
from the Book of Genesis recounts another mountain top experience, namely that
of Abraham and his only son Isaac, up on Mount Moriah. On both summits, those
chosen by God are given prophetic insight into His plan for them and for the
life of the world. Both events sort out the scandal of dealing with a God requiring
the sacrifice of an only son. On Mount Moriah the Almighty gives back Isaac to
Abraham without taking his life. He does so in recognition of Abraham’s readiness
to obey the Divine Will. On Tabor God reveals to Peter, James and John His Only
Begotten Son, Jesus, in Whom all that was written in the Law and the Prophets
finds its fulfillment. Death is to be swallowed up in Christ’s death and
everlasting glory is His for the sake of the life of the world.
“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.”
It never ceases to amaze me just how
quickly the forty days of Lent fly by. We are on the Second Sunday of Lent
already and it could be that you have not even sat down to make a plan for this
season of penance and prayer. It would seem for the most part that the Lenten
culture of my childhood and the world which most of us old folk experienced a
good sixty years ago has gotten lost. Back then Ash Wednesday hit and (bang!)
no more candy, no desserts, no movies and on and on. If your parents belonged
to the school which taught that Sundays did not count as days a penance, maybe
then on that day once a week, you got a treat. Under that regime (say what you
will!) you could not forget Lent. You were always thinking about your Lenten
obligations, which meant that God was in your thoughts, and for better or for
worse, that you were praying. Back then, weekly Stations of the Cross for the
children of the parochial school at the end of a school day were a fond memory
of a prayer we could really get into and which (be it noted!) got us out of the
classroom a half hour early on that day.
Did that kind of regimentation
necessarily guarantee that we could better focus on what we ought to be about
as God’s chosen ones, as His adopted children in Christ? Maybe yes, maybe no,
but I do think that practical atheism was not as much an issue as it is today. The
sacrifice of Isaac on Mont Moriah demanded as a test of Abraham by God certainly
had our father in faith tied up in knots. Abraham had to sort out God’s will
for him. It seemed totally out of touch with God’s promise to make him the
father of many nations, and then all of a sudden, to reclaim as a burnt
offering his only son Isaac, the one who should be the bearer of this promise. Peter,
James and John, representative of the whole first community of the disciples of
Jesus had to be prepared for the scandal of the Cross, of God claiming in death
His only begotten Son, Whom His followers professed as the Messiah, God’s
Chosen One.
If you still have not made a plan to do
something special for Lent, especially in terms of some kind of penance or
mortification, then do so today. Find a reasonable way to intensify and improve
your life of prayer.
Not too far from my home in Sioux Falls is one of those national barber franchises. They want you to use their app to see how long your wait is going to be for a haircut and log in online. It works pretty well! For the Sacrament of Penance, I have not yet seen an app to let you check your phone to see how long the confession line. My recommendation would be to get your confession in early now in Lent. So far on Saturdays at 4pm before Mass, I have not been exactly overworked. Last Wednesday after Stations I would have stayed as long as need be but no takers, and this coming Wednesday 3 March the same. March 10 and 24 are reserved for CCD confessions and March 17 the Bishop is coming for Confirmation, so do not put things off for too long or you may wish I had invented a confession-app. If you have a hard time accusing yourself of sin, it could be that you are a saint, but it could also be, that sad to say, you are a practical atheist… Think it over!
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI
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