Readings: 1st – Gen 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18
2nd – Roman 8:31b-34
Gospel – Mark 9: 2-10
My brothers and sisters: Since we were little children, we have known that God created us. As we matured we realized that each of us is called on to acknowledge that He is our Creator, through our daily prayers and perhaps by some sort of test.
One thing is sure; God created us out of His great love. Needless to say, at points in our lives we are tested in our love and obedience to Him. Just take a look at how each of us handle our sufferings, our illnesses, our losses, all the trials of our every day lives. Do we place our trust and love in God to be there with us? We know He is, but if for some reason we feel He is not, it is because we are pushing Him away!
Abraham was an old man before God tested him. He and Sarah had always wanted a family and were overjoyed when God gave them the child Isaac despite their old age. So Abraham’s spirit must have been crushed as he followed the Lord’s instructions and led Isaac to what he thought would be the child’s death.
But Abraham was steadfast in his faith and obedience to what he believed God wanted him to do. The story does have a happy ending and because of Abraham’s faith and obedience the Jews regarded him as their Father in Faith as well as the ancestor of the Jewish nation.
The early Christians, many of whom were Jews, saw this model of faith in Abraham and admired it. But they also looked beyond it for a deeper meaning and saw in his willingness to sacrifice his own son, a model of the willingness of the Father to sacrifice His Son for us.
As Paul tells us in the second reading, “God did not spare His own Son, but handed Him over for us all”.
We must realize that as cruel as Abraham might have seemed, preparing to sacrifice his own son, he really loved Isaac and trusted God to make things come out right-and they did.
In a similar manner, even though we don’t completely understand how God could let His Son suffer and die as he did, we must not feel that the Father loved His Son poorly, or wished Him any harm. Jesus said; “I and the Father are one”. And in today’s gospel the Father says: “This is my beloved Son, listen to Him”.
Jesus trusted the Father completely as Isaac trusted Abraham. Isaac didn’t know where the sacrifice was coming from but he believed his father Abraham. And when the lord’s messenger called out to Abraham not to lay a hand on the boy, Abraham saw a ram and offered it up instead of his son Isaac.
Jesus trusted the Father so much that He freely said; “let your will be done, not mine”. Jesus is not the victim of the Father, He is the victim of your sins and mine. The Father did not force Jesus to die, instead, since He had given Jesus a complete human nature, with free will, Jesus used this free will to willingly give up His life for our sins.
God didn’t condemn Jesus to death, NO!!!! Paul, in our second reading was saying that God gave His son, Jesus, up to benefit us all. And Jesus’ tremendous love for the Father and for us led Him to freely reconcile us all, with His own life and death. The Father then showed His love by raising Jesus from the dead, in glorious resurrection.
We have to be careful that we don’t consider the various steps in the Redemption process as individual events, isolated from each other. You can’t have an Easter without Good Friday. The Resurrection couldn’t have happened without the Crucifixion first.
To receive the full effect of the most important time in our Church year, in fact in our lives, we need to be active participants in the Triduum Liturgies: That is Holy Thursday ( The Lord’s Supper and the washing of feet), Good Friday, (Christ’s passion and death- with the adoration of the cross), and the Easter Vigil (With the lighting of the Easter Candle from the fire), signifying our coming out of the darkness of sin into the light of Christ.
Our week human nature though inclines us to skip right over Lent and go right to the happy ending – that happy and glorious Resurrection on Easter. However, that did not work for Jesus and it won’t work that way for us.
We have a free will, like Jesus, and just as He felt it necessary to spend 40 days of self-denial to discipline Himself denying the devil’s temptations before beginning His public life, so we should voluntarily discipline ourselves to make ourselves ready for the trials and to fight the devil’s temptations that come into our daily lives.
When God called Abraham to put him to the test, Abraham was able to answer “Ready Lord”! Are we ready?
Compared to other countries, most Americans are pampered, soft, and undisciplined. Prosperity and freedom are great but since they do not of themselves discipline us, we, who are free and well-fed, must actively seek out ways to discipline ourselves, to avoid sin. Jesus gives us Himself in the Eucharist to give us the strength to do so.
We have many ways that are offered to us as a way of obtaining that discipline, especially during Lent and also during the year. It is so simple for us to do that. There are the Stations of the Cross every Friday during Lent at 5:30 P.M. (Early enough to get home for dinner).
There are the Soup Suppers every Wednesday at 6 P.M. with a different program afterwards each week. There is a Reconciliation service on the 21st of this month at 7 P.M. with individual confession and confessions are heard every Saturday throughout the year.
There are the bible studies, there is the Adult Ed program every Sunday after the 8 A.M. Mass, prayer groups and a lot more. Week by week you can find these programs listed in the weekly Sunday Bulletin. It is as easy as getting in your cars and showing up.
My friends, just as Jesus underwent self-discipline and suffering before He could “Stand at the right hand of God to intercede for us”so we must die to ourselves, to trust in the providence and love of the Father as our Creator, like Abraham did, and to observe the spirit of Lent fully-so that we can rise with Christ on Easter.