LENT: THE SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE
The spirit of Lent is one of sacrifice. A sacrifice that leads to transformation and renewal. A sacrifice of Lent is the Easter joy of the resurrection. Hence, Lent invites us to renounce something precious in us: ego, desire or things. It is a time of penitential sacrifice to give up something we hold dear for the sake of the gospel.
As once King David said to Araunah, “No, but I will certainly buy it from you for a price; I don’t want to offer to Yahweh my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the cattle for fifty shekels of silver”.
We cannot live the Lenten Season without giving up something for God, others or ourselves. There are some personal questions we need to ask ourselves: what sacrifice am I making this Lent? What has Lent cost me?
Remember, Lent is not just a moment of prayers, penance, fasting and almsgivings. There is a purpose why we have or do Lent. Lent is the crucible that leads to the Easter resurrection. As postulated by Venerable Fulton Sheen, “unless there is a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday”. Inferable too, we cannot get to the glory of Easter without the pain or sacrifice of Lent.
OUR THEME
The readings of this Sunday point us to the necessary pain, suffering and sacrifice of Lent. These lead to the renewal or transformation of our spirit, soul and body. They invite us to be courageous when making a sacrifice for God. As our sacrifice renew God’s blessings upon us and strengthen our will to go through life bear with patience our crosses.
They assure us too that if God could make the ultimate sacrifice to save us from our human wretchedness. What will He not do to save us? Equally, who or what can be against us?
Fundamentally, the readings encourage us and give us hope that there is a resurrection after the passion and death of Jesus Christ. There are victory, glory and joy after the Lenten sacrifices.
FIRST READING GENESIS 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18
The story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his only child old age son: Isaac after a long time of waiting is the greatest trial of faith in Him. Abraham’s calmness, courage and trust in God’s providence and the word was the base of his unquestionable sacrifice to God. No wonder, Abraham is considered to be our father in faith.
This test or trial made his faith a trusted one by God. Above all, it made God reaffirmed his covenant with him as well as befriended him as a special one for all ages. This is the indisputable fact when making an unadulterated, precious and costly sacrifice for God. There are unimaginable blessings that come with it.
The responsorial of today’s Psalm 116 invites us to walk in the presence of the Lord, in the land of the living trusting his providence and deliverance. The stanzas of the Psalm invite us to fulfil our vow or promise to God.
SECOND READING ROMANS 8:31-34
The Letter of St. Paul to the Romans is one of the most powerful letters to the early non-Jewish Christian communities. Communities beset with conflicting and condemning messages from the Jewish Christian communities.
Paul made it clear that despite our past life, sins and wrongdoings once we are in God no one or thing or spirit can be against us. No charge or condemnation can be brought against us. Why?
- God’s sacrificial love made him give up his only begotten son for us. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
- There is an unequal sacrifice to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God’s only beloved Son.
- By his sacrifice, death, resurrection Jesus is our eternal mediator before God. Hence, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1).
- For his elected or chosen ones (us) God can and will go to any extent to save with lavish grace, mercy, blessings and love.
THE GOSPEL MARK 9:2-10
In the transfiguration narrative, Jesus and three of his disciples ascend a tall mountain, where Jesus is transformed and his garments become radiant white. The voice of God comes from a cloud, identifying Jesus as the beloved Son of God and instructing the disciples to listen to Jesus.
Jesus during his public ministry preached the good news that challenged the religious status quo of his time. He taught the truth that reveals God’s love and His will for man. Thereby exposing the hypocrisy and falsity of man about what God is not. He healed, restored and touched lives to the envy and jealousy of the religious power and authority of his time.
The price for all this was the hardest truth of all ages. The malicious, merciless and crudest death in the hands of religious powers and authorities who felt threatened by his way of life: preaching, teaching and healing.
Jesus realized this, hence before his transfiguration, he started predicting death and resurrection. This is the context of the transfiguration.
(a) First, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ: the climax of Jesus’ public ministry and a turning point in the story of His life. (Matthew 16:13-20, Mark 8:27-30, Luke 9:18-21) and he cautioned that this Messianic revelation should be revealed to anyone.
(b) Second, Jesus begins to prepare the mind of his disciples of what awaits him- announcing that He must die on the cross and rise from the dead in three days (Matthew 16:21-26, Mark 8:31-37, Luke 9:22-25).
(c) This way of redemption by the cross and death was incomprehensible to the disciples. Especially, Simon Peter who rebuked Jesus for speaking of death (Matthew 16:22; Mark 8:32).
(d) Then, Jesus declares that some of those with Him will see the kingdom of God (Matthew 16:28, Mark 9:1, Luke 9:27).
(e) Six days later after the incidents near Caesarea Philippi. — Luke writes “about eight days later” (Luke 9:28) — Jesus takes Peter, James, and John with Him to a high mountain where He is transfigured before them, appearing with Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36).
(f) Therefore, the transfiguration according to many theologians and biblical experts was God, the Father’s way of showing the disciples and us. That, there is a glorious resurrection that awaits Christ after his suffering and death.
(g) The transfiguration was meant to evict the most scandalous thing – the death of God in the hands of men. Demonstrating a willing death for a course: the salvation of all through his glorious resurrection that was God’s final victory over sin, death and evil. Thanks to the willingness of the Father to sacrifice His only Begotten Son and Son’s courage to embrace the ultimate will of the Father.
In summary, the readings of this second Sunday could be connected like this. Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac is the confirmatory message of the transfiguration where God the Father in his willingness to sacrifice His only beloved Son Jesus Christ. By demonstrating Christ’s glory after the cross and death. The redemptive sacrifice that made live above any charges or condemnation of anyone in Christ Jesus.
DOUBLE SIGNIFICANCE OF TRANSFIGURATION
(i) It did something very precious for Jesus. Jesus had to take his own decisions to go to Jerusalem and to face and accept the Cross. He had to be sure that was right before he could go on. On the mountain top, he received double approval of his decision.
(a) Moses and Elijah met with him. Now Moses was the supreme law-giver of Israel. To him, the nation owed the laws of God. Elijah was the first and the greatest of the prophets. Always men looked back to him as the prophet who brought to men the very voice of God.
When these two great figures met with Jesus it meant that the greatest of the law-givers and the greatest of the prophets said to him, “Go on!” It meant that they saw in Jesus the consummation of all that they had dreamed of in the past. It meant that they saw in him all that history had longed for and hoped for and looked forward to. It is as if at that moment Jesus was assured that he was on the right way because all history had been leading up to the Cross.
(b) God spoke with Jesus. As always, Jesus did not consult his wishes. He went to God and said, “What wilt thou have me to do?” He put all his plans and intentions before God. And God said to him, “You are acting as my own beloved Son should act and must act. Go on!” On the mountain of the transfiguration, Jesus was assured that he had not chosen the wrong way. He saw, not only the inevitability but the essential rightness of the Cross.
(ii) It did something very precious for the disciples.
(a) They had been shattered by Jesus’ statement that he was going to Jerusalem to die. That seemed to them the complete negation of all that they understood of the Messiah. They were still bewildered and uncomprehending. Things were happening which not only baffled their minds but were also breaking their hearts. What they saw on the mountain of the transfiguration would give them something to hold on to, even when they could not understand. Cross or no Cross, they had heard God’s voice acknowledge Jesus as his Son and inviting them to pay attention by listening to him.
(b) It made them in a special sense witnesses of the glory of Christ. A witness has been defined as a man who first sees and then shows. This time on the mountain had shown them the glory of Christ, and now they had the story of this glory to hide in their hearts and to tell to men, not at the moment, but when the time came.
OUR LESSONS
Without the sacrifices of Lent through a conscious prayer time, practical penance of denial, fasting and abstinence as well as almsgivings to the less privileged. There can be no glory of EASTER IN US THROUGH THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.
There cannot and there will never a crown without a cross, gain without pain in the Christian life. Our victory, glory and salvation are closely tied to our willingness to sacrifice all for God and to God.
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, you reveal the glory and victory that await you after your passion and death to a glorious resurrection through your transfiguration. Help us to know that with your sacrifice on the cross and death we live above all reproaches, charges and condemnations. May we also know that the scandal of the cross is overshadowed by the glory of the resurrection. Finally, may we always and everywhere learn to offer the sacrifice that costs us all like you, God your Father and Abraham. Amen!
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