Daily Retreat 03/12/06

2006 Mar 12: SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

Gn 22: 1-2. 9a. 10-13. 15-18/ Ps 115(116): 10. 15. 16-17. 18-19/ Rom 8: 31b-34/ Mk 9: 2-10

From today’s readings: "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.... I believed, even when I said: I am greatly afflicted!... If God is for us, who can be against us?... Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves...."

Transfigured Glory

Of the twelve chapters of Genesis which recount the life of Abraham, today’s verses from chapter 22 are the most poignant and most memorable, when God put Abraham to the test, and called upon him to sacrifice his son Isaac, for whom he had waited so many years.

At first glance, the incident gives rise to a legitimate objection to God’s way of doing things: how can He, the God who is all good, ask Abraham for human sacrifice? According to other scripture passages, such a custom is abominable to God (e.g., Deut. 12:31, Psalm 105:37-40). Even with the realization that God, who knows all things, already knew how Isaac’s sacrifice would be averted, it still seems God’s command has inexcusably inflicted Abraham with great mental anguish.

But the things about God are not just things of the moment, but things of eternity, so the brightest light is shed on biblical mysteries through meditation on not just the present moment related, but the past that leads up to it, and the future that springs from it.

In the case of Abraham, there are a dozen chapters focusing on him in the Book of Genesis, starting with chapter 12, and God’s promise to make of Abram a great nation. But up until chapter 21, Abraham just waits and waits to become the father of a single legitimate son, let alone the father of a whole nation. When Isaac is finally born (in chapter 21), Abraham must have assumed that the waiting and testing was finally over.

And yet, to be the stalwart father in faith, Abraham needed to prove to himself and to his descendants that God ALWAYS comes first, no matter what. For the test and lesson for Abraham is just a variant foreshadowing of the teaching of Jesus (cf. Matt. 10:37ff), "Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me." And this testing of Abraham, far from condoning child sacrifice, conclusively illustrates that God does not want that - indeed, the gripping pathos of this chapter made that message clear enough to even the most primitive peoples. And finally, God knew that Abraham’s example would help his future descendants one day understand the significance of His own Son’s sacrifice....

And that’s what the Transfiguration is all about, as well. An unforgettable moment, seared forever in the disciples’ memories. But not just a momentary experience, but rather a momentous expedient that was to be the key to all of the Old Testament history of salvation, and the glorious glimpse of the New Testament climax of salvation.

For Moses, the charismatic liberator and inspired lawgiver, and Elijah, the faithful prophet and fearless forerunner, taken together stand for the whole of the Old Testament Law and the Prophets. But that whole first volume of divine revelation was just the beginning of what God planned to give His people, for the voice from Heaven, while not abolishing the Law and the Prophets, nevertheless supercedes the witness of Moses and Elijah by focusing on only One: "This is My beloved Son - Listen to Him!"

And so Christ’s disciples of that time, as well as Christ’s disciples of this time, and of every future age, are commanded anew: "This is My beloved Son - Listen to Him!" Listen to Him, yes, when He speaks words of comfort, but listen also when He speaks words of warning! Behold Jesus as the beloved Son of God in the glory of the Transfiguration, but behold the Man no less in the gore of the Crucifixion!

And thus, let the lesson be seared forever in our own lives: if God is for us, who can be against us? So indeed, it is good that we are here with Jesus in celebration of His Sunday victory and transfigured glory, but that cannot be solidly ours wholly, unless we are good to be with Jesus in holy solidarity, listening to Him again wherever the reality of the Cross points its shadow to the suffering of any and all the beloved children of God.