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2nd Sunday Lent |
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Dear Preachers:
The scriptural readings for Sundays are chosen with purpose. The first reading (usually from the Hebrew Scriptures) relates to the gospel of the day. This relationship is not accidental but reflects a theological and pastoral plan designed by the Church after the Second Vatican Council. The gospel is primary, the “theological anchor.” Each Sunday the first reading is chosen because it illuminates, foreshadows or prepares for the Gospel.
So, for example, the first reading from the Hebrew Scriptures contains figures, events, or promises that prefigure Christ. The Gospel reveals the fulfillment of what the Hebrew Scriptures anticipate.
So, on this second Sunday of Lent our first reading presents the patriarch Abram, who begins the journey of faith. The gospel presents the Son who will complete that journey through his faith, suffering and glory. Abram steps into the unknown because he trusts God’s Word. On the mountaintop the disciples are directed by the voice coming from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him.”
The pattern for us disciples is presented to Abram. Here’s how it is suggested to us today. Like Abram: we are called, we did not self-initiate that call. Abram did not invent his mission, God summoned him. In the gospel the disciples do not engineer the Transfiguration, they are led up the mountain. Likewise, our Christian life does not begin with our own designs for self-improvement. God has taken the initiative to call us through our Baptism, particular vocation, graced-conversion, showing us the way we are to serve. This is contrary to modern cues which tell us we are in control and can design our own destiny.
Abram hears and responds to a promise without seeing is fulfillment. So too with the disciples. On the mountain they get a view of glory before they can understand the Cross. So, it is with us. We are called to trust. Before we see, we commit ourselves without yet experiencing promised outcomes and we follow Christ without a detailed map, or GPS.
It is Lent, a time not only for fasting and self-denial, but for reflection. Today’s readings ask for a Lenten response. What is God asking me to leave? What promise am I clinging to? What feels uncertain and scary to me in my daily journey? Prompted by the disciples’ mountaintop experience, have I ever had a glimpse of Christ’s glory that sustains me in times of doubt and testing? Our lives don’t re-create exactly the biblical events, but they are shaped by that same divine rhythm and pattern: Call... Promise... Journey... Fulfillment.
But before all this comes grace. – If we are in a time of our upheaval – then we are in the “ Call.” – Waiting for something to unfold – we are in the “Promise.” – Struggling through difficulty – we are in the “Journey.” And... experiencing deep peace, or clarity, we have a glimpse of “Fulfillment.”
Christian life seems to move through these stages repeatedly. Our modern world prizes control, speed, efficiency and measurable results. While our faith, revealed again to us in our biblical readings today, prizes trust, patience and listening.
We hear the call today to trust our faithful God over long stretches of time; to stay trusting as Revelation unfolds gradually. We are reminded that glory and suffering coexist; That our story is not unique but is part of a much larger story. Like the disciples we too have “mountain moments” – times of deep prayer, clarity, peace in the sense of God near and real. Such moments are not escapes but strengthening for when we come down the mountain and returned to live faithfully the valley.
Lent is not about dramatic heroics. It is about trusting the promise we have heard and the courage to take the next step. We are like Abram: we walk without seeing the whole future. Like the disciples on the mountain, we listen to God’s Word through the Beloved Son which encourages and strengthens us to keep walking through whatever daily uncertainties we must face. We remember that it is God who calls us and God who is faithful. With that Lenten hope we are carried towards Easter strengthened and encouraged by God’s Spirit.
Today’s Scriptures reveal the heart of Lent. Like Abram we are asked you to step away from what secures us. Through prayer fasting and almsgiving we turn in trust to God even before we see results. Faith is not having clarity; it is walking anyway. Abram dared to trust and so began salvation history.
Notice too that the promise is not just for him. “All the communities of the earth shall find a blessing in you.” God blesses us so that others may be blessed through us. In Lent we make our yearly journey out of comfort into promise, trusting that if we walk with God, even though we have not been given a map, we are walking toward blessing.
Click here for a link to this Sunday’s readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030126.cfm
“Abraham represents the possibility of a new beginning – the courage to answer a call.” – Elie Wiesel
“He saved us and called us to a holy life.” 2 Timothy 1:9
Here, near the beginning of Lent, we are reminded as Christians, to turn or return completely to Christian commitment. It is so easy to get caught up in the humdrum of our lives, to fill our space with noise, to drown out the still small voice of God calling us to greater life. Our lives should be a consistent exercise in letting go of things that keep us from being transfigured. Yet we linger in what we think are safe and secure ruts. The gift of Lent can be for us an intense period of purification and enlightenment, a time of transformation, a time of deepening our life with Christ. How do we do this?
During the papal conclave of his election to become Pope Francis, then Cardinal Bergoglio gave a three-minute speech “in which he said the Church, in order to survive, must stop ‘living within herself, of herself, for herself’” (Rolling Stone , Binelli 2/13/14). Well, here’s a news flash—we are the Church! Each one of us must stop living within ourselves, of ourselves, for ourselves. We must be love to a hurting world.
Pope Leo concludes his exhortation, Dilexi Te, with these words: “ Christian love breaks down every barrier, brings close those who were distant, unites strangers, and reconciles enemies. . .Love is above all a way of looking at life and a way of living it. A Church that sets no limits to love, that knows no enemies to fight but only men and women to love, is the Church that the world needs today (120). Through your work, your efforts to change unjust social structures or your simple, heartfelt gesture of closeness and support, the poor will come to realize that Jesus’ words are addressed personally to each of them: “I have loved you” (Rev 3:9) (121).
For the next three weekends, please stop by to “Join in the Joy of Just Service” at our Works of Mercy tables in the narthex. Our devoted coordinators need YOU to be counted to help spread love. You can deepen your life with Christ by walking with others, especially the poor.
If we implement even a small portion of what our popes say, we will see ourselves changing, like a butterfly shaking free from its cocoon. By living a holy life of love, we will change our world as well.
Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral Raleigh, NC
Mini-reflections on the Sunday scripture readings designed for persons on the run. “Faith Book” is also brief enough to be posted in the Sunday parish bulletins people take home. From today’s Gospel reading:
“As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Reflection:
Jesus teaches patience. Let the experience sink in. Let it be tested by daily fidelity. The deepest witness is not excited talk, but steady discipleship shaped by the cross and illuminated by hope.
So, we ask ourselves: · What “mountain moments” have strengthened my faith, and how have they shaped my daily life afterward? · Do I seek glory without accepting the cross that gives it meaning? · How is Christ asking me to live quiet, patient faith right now, even without dramatic experiences?
POSTCARDS TO DEATH-ROW INMATES
“One has to strongly affirm that condemnation to the death penalty is an inhuman measure that humiliates personal dignity, in whatever form it is carried out.” ---Pope Francis
Inmates on death row are the most forgotten people in the prison system. Each week I am posting in this space several inmates’ names and locations. I invite you to write a postcard to one or more of them to let them know that: we have not forgotten them; are praying for them and their families; or whatever personal encouragement you might like to give them. If the inmate responds, you might consider becoming pen pals.
Please write to: · David Lynch #0251740 (On death row since 5/27/1993) · Jeffrey Barrett #0021418 (6/1/1993) · Norfolk Best #0030124 (6/7/1993) Central Prison P.O. 247 Phoenix MD 21131 (While the prison is in Raleigh mail for inmates is processed at this address)
For more information on the Catholic position on the death penalty go to the Catholic Mobilizing Network: http://catholicsmobilizing.org
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