2nd Sunday of Lent: Year B.......DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Genesis 22,1-2.9.10-13.15-18; Rom 8,31-34;  Mark 9,2-10;  2nd Sunday of Lent:  Year B)

On every second Sunday of Lent, the gospel is always the episode of Jesus transfiguration. Mark places this episode very close to other significant ones: 
 (i) Peter’s profession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah;
 (ii) The necessary conditions of entering into the kingdom of God: If any one wishes to follow me, he has to deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.  
(iii) Christ’s first prediction of his destiny. Through the event of the transfiguration Jesus wishes to convey two points: First, looking at his appearance, one would take Jesus just as an ordinary person, as a gifted and extraordinary person. However, in reality he is a God -Man. His humanity hid his divinity. Now the passion and death he was to meet in Jerusalem was the way God the Father established that he would redeem the world. The eventual final end was not to be the blow of death he was subjected to, but the triumph of his divinity through his resurrection. The event of the transfiguration threw more light to his identity as the beloved Son of God. The second lesson from the transfiguration episode is that to follow Christ means to take up one’s cross, in denial of self, and in union with him. This will lead one to share in his destiny of glory. However, one does not wait till after death to begin to share Christ glory with Him, because participating in the glory of Christ already begins in this world. It begins with our sharing in the sanctifying grace at our baptism by which we have a share in the divine life which elevates, transfigures and divinizes us. Dazed by the well being he experienced at the transfiguration scene, for example, Jesus splendid look, his amiable conversation with Elijah and Moses, Peter wanted to prolong the experience when he said: Rabbi, it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. However, the three disciples, Peter, James and John had to come down from the Mount of Transfiguration and return to their ordinary daily duties, still following Jesus on the road that leads to Jerusalem and eventually to Calvary. It is to be noted here, that we, Christians of today, resemble Peter. We prefer being Jesus’ disciples, following and staying with him, when things are going on well, in the monotony and difficulties of daily life, times of temptation and in any other type of hardship, we are tempted to abandon him. But it must be borne in mind that it is the difficulties of following him, struggle and sufferings about it that are the price we must pay in order to enjoy the reward which St. Paul talks of in Romans 8,17: if we truly participate in his suffering, we shall surely share his glory (Rom 8,17).  

In the second reading, Paul in an effort to show the love God has for man enunciates:  He did not even spare his Son but gave him up for all of us. Paul went on to elucidate conclusions from it, thus: 

(i)  If God is on our side, no one will be able to harm us; 

(ii) If God gave us the greatest of all possible gifts, “his beloved Son”, he will surely give us all that is necessary for our salvation; 

(iii) There is no type of difficulty, or adversity, not even any created thing or any power that will be able to take away from us, Christians, the love, which God has manifested in his Son, Jesus Christ.

It is still on account of this love that the Christian will be victorious in all the temptations that surround him. We have, therefore, from the teaching of St Paul had more than enough motives not to fear but to repose full confidence and hope in God. 

A wonderful example of the aforementioned type of confidence and hope in God is offered to us from the first reading in the figure of Abraham, whom the Lord put to test. It was a test by which Abraham was to show his love and faith in God. It was then a difficult test for Abraham for two motives: The first was that God wanted him to offer as holocaust, his only son, Isaac. The second seemed to be a contradiction on the part of God, who had earlier promised Abraham multitude of descendants from an only son and God was again demanding that this son should be sacrificed. This seeming contradictions notwithstanding, Abraham had full confidence in God and was ready to obey the order he did not understand. It was precisely on account of this his absolute trust in God that he was rewarded. God gave him back his son and reconfirmed his blessings on him and on his descendants: ... because you have not refused me your son, your only son, I will shower blessings on you, I will make your descendants as many as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore. 

For us to have success in this life where it seems God sometimes abandons us, withdraws his love from us, leaves us to pass through times of darkness and spiritual aridity, anguish or even sometimes allows that we loose someone dear to us and makes our endeavors seem nonsense and fruitless, we need to repose absolute and unconditional trust and confidence in God. These are moments of test and temptation when God demands that we should repose maximum and absolute confidence in him and never doubt his love for us. If we would know how to follow the example of our Father Abraham in faith, we will be able to affirm like him that God does not contradict himself, nor does he delude our expectations. All the saints and elect of God who passed through various and dolorous tests without loosing confidence in God anytime, had had this experience and can confirm this truth important and also stimulating. May we, therefore, pray in the Eucharistic celebration that we may have the grace to appreciate the identity of Christ who was transfigured. May we also appreciate the depth of God’s love for us by sending his beloved Son to redeem us and may our confidence in this love of God never wane but grow stronger and stronger and be constant  as the trust and confidence which Abraham reposed on God. Happy Sunday!  

+John Okoye.
(GRAPHICS/PICTURES BY BLOGGER)