2nd Sunday of Lent - Fr. Leo
The image of Abraham about to sacrifice his only son is a disturbing one, it strikes at the core of what our hearts tell us is good. At least Rembrandt depicts this scene with Isaac’s face being covered by Abraham’s left hand. But even here it is disturbing, and is meant to be. The angel stops Abraham, and the dramatic story takes a different direction, when an animal sacrifice is offered to God. The message to us in this story, is that nothing should come before our faith, our relationship and trust in God. And that faith should be as strong and dramatic as the image given us of a man about to kill his own son which disturbed our deepest and best nature.
In our second reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans, we are given a picture of how much God loves us. God’s only son was sacrificed on the altar of sin and death to spare us the same. God is for us, and can’t be against us. This image affirms God’s faith in us. We are his only sons and daughters, and he dies for us.
In the gospel account of Christ’s Transfiguration, we receive a vision of where our faith in God, and God’s faith in us, will lead. The power of Christ’s transfiguration is shared with three of his disciples. From that moment on, they know that Jesus is not only human, but divine as well. In this experience, they too are transformed, and come to see how Jesus is our proto-type of how we are to come to share in God’s divinity.
The Spirit that was the transforming light on the mount, is the same spirit God shares with us. This light is within us. As we grow in our faith that God is loving us in the deepest unknown ground of our being, our faith will transform us, making us “conscious” of the God who lives within us. Our climbing the mount will be entering into God’s silence within and there, experience our incomprehensible oneness with God. God in us, and we in God.
Oh God, help us to know your loving presence within. Help us to surrender to your love so that all that keeps us from living in peace in you may vanish and the disciples vision of you on the mount may be our vision forever. Amen.