A Commentary and Reflection on the Readings for the Second Sunday in Lent – Year B. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray. READINGS: Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18, Romans 8:31b-34, Mark 9:2-10.
The Liturgy of the Mass is Building a Faithful and Fearless People
What would your life look like if nothing mattered but doing the will of God? Our sacrifices this Lenten season should inspire us to taste the sweet, bitter, simple, and dry answer to that question.
One thing that holds people back from living as if all that matters is God is their fear that God does not love them enough. We take charge of our own life, not wait for God, manipulate situations to win the advantage, and walk before God because we fear the outcome of God not loving us enough to do for us what we think is best for us. We do not trust that God’s goodness and His will for our life is better for us than what we desire. We fear the will of God. We tend not to be like Abraham in today’s First Reading from Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18. In the first two verses, notice how the text tells us that when “God put Abraham to the test,” He first called out to him by name, saying, “Abraham!” to which Abraham replied, “Here I am.” God then says, “Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There, offer him up as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point out to you.” Then, later in verse seven, Issac, Abraham’s son, calls out to him, saying, “Father!” to which Abraham replies as he replies to God, saying, “Here I am.” Issac continues, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” Abraham says, “My Son, God will provide the sheep for the burnt offering.”
Any parent who loves their child can see when they are filled with fear. Abraham knew that Issac was afraid, but Abraham also knew that God loved him enough not to harm him. Abraham knew that same God who promised him he and his wife Sarah a son, even in their old age, and even after Sarah had stopped having her menstrual periods, Abraham knew that God would not now take away from him the gift He had promised. However, when you believe that God loves you more than you love yourself, you do what God calls you to do, how He calls you to do it, and when He calls you to do it because you know with every fiber of your being that you have nothing to fear when you’re doing the will of God. So, when Abraham “reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son,” the LORD’s messenger called to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!” and for the third time, Abraham responded, “Here I am!” And that day, because he withheld nothing from God, not his son and, most especially, not his faith, the Lord blessed him and his descendants abundantly.
Abraham knew what the Apostle Paul asked the Church in Rome in today’s Second Reading from Romans 8:31b-34, writing, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” In other words, what do we have to fear by loving God with everything we have been given to love Him? Moreover, there was no surprise for Christians to see how magnanimously God blessed Abraham because in Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice His own son, God saw Himself, who Paul writes, “He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?” In other words, if God held nothing back from us, even His only begotten and beloved Son; if He held nothing back from freeing us from bondage to sin and death, who are we to hold back anything from God? The Gospel of John 3:16 expresses the divine sharing in this way, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” Yet, what does believing in Him look like? What does eternal life look like?
The glorious image of Christ Jesus transfiguration in today’s Gospel Reading from Mark 9:2-10 answers that question. “And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them . . . Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” The command from God is to listen to His Son, which means we are called to always have open and attentive ears for Jesus calling out to us, always being ready to attend to the word of God and do whatever He is asking of us.
Because we were made in His image and likeness and had His breath breathed into his nostrils from the beginning, we were created with a capacity for God, which means we have the natural ability to hear His voice. Therefore, the role of the liturgy and the sacraments has been to foster and mature our natural ability by speaking to us His words so that His voice and His manner of speech might be more familiar to us. That is, by repetitiously hearing the word of God in the sacred Scriptures and the prayers of the Church, we learn to distinguish between when God is speaking to us versus when the world, the flesh, and the devil are tempting us. In this way, we become like Abraham, who knows when to respond, “Here I am.” Yes, through her rhythm of filling us with the word of God through prayer and confession, the liturgy of the Catholic Mass is forming a people who are here, who are present, listening, and ready to hold nothing back from God because they have been formed to know that everything they have been given belongs to God and needs to be offered back Him as our sacrifice.
This Lenten season, offer God everything He has given you, especially those things you treasure the most. Demonstrate that God and prove to yourself that you genuinely believe there is nothing between you and Him: no desire, possession, or worry. The Beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” In other words, those who have built their own kingdom with possessions they fear losing have already received their reward.
This is just one way the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the liturgy and how the liturgy is forming us in how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the liturgy.
