SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT – 2021
« On the first Sunday of Lent we contemplated Jesus
tempted, to help us to see his vulnerability as a member of the human
race.
« In the second Sunday we are invited to contemplate his
glory, his divine being.
« We need to meditate and contemplate both realities to be able to follow the Lord unconditionally.
FIRST READING – Gen 22:1-2.9.10-13.15-18.
Ø
The cycle of Abraham ends with the story of the
sacrifice of Isaac. Frightening story
which poses a great number of questions, probably because we read it literally,
in a fundamentalist way.
Ø
According to a commentator
the biblical author uses a legend to give a message on the meaning of faith, on
the value of life and that God is the God of life, and does not want human
sacrifices. A legend which fits well with the behavior of Abraham.
Ø
Another commentator
thinks that Abraham in his process of learning to know God who has spoken to
him, has called him and has made promises to him, wants to offer to God the
best he has, even if this entails that the promises will not be able to be fulfilled,
or God will provide.
Ø
A third
commentator says that the story is about a believer who discovers, through the
tortuous way of the divine silence, the promise of a complete salvation.
Ø
In the Old
Testament God is portrayed in contradictory ways, sometimes with the tenderness
of a parent and other times with great rigor. Sometimes God promises and later
on asks to do something different.
Ø
In truth it is
not God who is ambivalent, but the faith of human being who in his/her process
of maturing understands God better little by little. This is what the writings of the different
authors of the Old Testament reflect. The Bible is in truth the story about God
who seeks the human being, and the slow and sometimes contradictory response of
that same human being.
Ø
Let us try to
draw something from the great theological richness of this text, to nurture our
faith.
Ø Abraham does not have Ishmael anymore because he has
sent away the mother with the child. The warranty of having descendants rests now on
Isaac.
Ø
Abraham understands
or believes that God calls him and he responds quickly “Here I am.”
Ø He thinks that God wants him to sacrifice his son that
he gave to him. And he makes himself ready to fulfill God’s order.
Ø
But this will
entail that the promises will not be able to be fulfilled, there will be
neither descendants nor land, nor promises. Everything will be over.
Ø
Abraham will lose
what is the support of his faith, and in the darkness of his heart he is ready
to execute what he believes is the will of God, and thus he will become the
father of all believers from all times, who will trust even without seeing, who
will hope against hope.
Ø
This situation is
a constant theme in the life of every believer, in the life of every man or
woman who seek the Lord with all their being. Let us think of Mary, the young
girl from Nazareth, to whom God asked her to give up her “Isaac”, change her
plans for the plans of God. How difficult it is for us and how often we are not
able to make this leap in the dark, where there are always the divine hands to
receive us.
Ø
God stops the arm
of Abraham. God condemns the sacrifice of children or of any other human being.
Ø
Abraham, guided
by God, does not sacrifice his son and instead he offers a goat
Ø
The people of
Israel influenced maybe by this account understood that the first born belongs to God,
and thus they recue him offering a sacrifice, the paschal lamb on the night of
the Passover. Like Abraham who offered the sacrifice of a sheep
in place of his son. Remember also the
presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the parents offer two
turtle-doves and two pigeons as a ransom for the son.
Ø
We are called to
live our faith, our intimate relationship with God in every situation of our
life, in the light and in the darkness when everything seems lost and we are
alone facing the abyss. It is the moment
of unconditional love, of faith without seeing without light.
Ø
Abraham understands
that God does not want human sacrifices. The happiness he experiences when God
stops his hand seems to be reflected in the words “for having done this, for
not having denied your only son to me… because you have obeyed…”
Ø
I transcribe
beneath something I have read and which I find very interesting and clarifying.
The author of the book According to the Scriptures quotes from
the book Temor y Temblor of the Danish
philosopher S. Kierkegaard the following words:
“When the child has to be weaned, the mother dyes her breast with dark color. It would be cruel if the breast continued to be desirable when the child has to be weaned. Thus the child thinks that the breast has changed. But the mother has not changed at all, she continues to be the same, her eyes are filled with tenderness and love, precisely in the moment when she takes away the child from her to help him or her grow.”
Ø
There are two
important points in Abraham’s story: the
faith of Abraham, the call to a trusting faith in Yahweh, and the name of the
mount “The Lord will provide” which continues to be a profession of unconditional
faith in the God of the promises.
Ø Who or what is our Isaac? Are we willing to give it to the Lord? Even if this entails a radical change in our life? Or, maybe it will require the acceptance of darkness that frightens us, because we think that in darkness we are without the Lord? But, the truth is that he is always there.
SALMO RESPONSORIAL 116,10.15.16-17.18-19
I
WILL WALK BEFORE THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING
I believed even
when I said
I am greatly
afflicted
Precious in the
eyes of the Lord
Is the death of
his faithful ones.
I
WILL WALK BEFORE THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING
O Lord, I am your
servant
The son of your
handmaid
You have loosed my
bonds
To you will I
offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving
And I will call
upon the name of the Lord.
I
WILL WALK BEFORE THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING
My vows to the
Lord I will pay
In the presence of
all his people
In the courts of
the house of the Lord
In your midst, O
Jerusalem!
I WILL WALK BEFORE THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING
ü
The words of the
first stanza might reflect the feelings that filled the heart of Abraham when
he thought that God wanted him to sacrifice Isaac.
ü
In the second
stanza, the author declares himself the servant of the Lord who has loosen his
bonds. Yes the Lord broke the chains, freed Abraham from anguish, when he
revealed to him that he was not asking for the life of his son.
ü
His reacts with
joy and thanksgiving “I will offer to you a sacrifice of praise, I will invoke
your name.”
ü
Thus he will
sing, he will be faithful and trustful in the Lord in the midst of the faith
community.
GOSPEL OF MARK 9:2-10
Ø
Six days after
the first announcement of his passion, Jesus is transfigured in the presence of
his disciples, as an announcement of his glorious resurrection.
Ø
The two
magnificent pictures that today’s liturgy offers to us happened on a mountain.
In the first narration from the Old Testament it is Mount Moriah which the
tradition identifies symbolically with mount Zion where the temple of Jerusalem
was built.
Ø
Moses represents
the LAW and Eliah the PROPHETS (The Hebrew
Scriptures are organized into two sections the Law and the
Prophets).
Ø
Jesus takes with
him to the mountain Peter, James and John, they will also be with him during
his agony in the garden, during his defeat and vulnerability like every other
human being. These men will be able to testify to Jesus man and God.
Ø
Peter, as usual
speaks in the name of the other disciples. How good it is to be here Lord! To
be in the glory without passing through the darkness of faith, the cross, the desolation.
Peter does not want that Jesus go back to where they came from, it is better to
stay here, we will build the necessary tents.
Ø
Again the voice
from heaven is Heard “This is my beloved
son, listen to him
Ø In two different occasions the Father tells us that
Jesus is his beloved son. Moments when we are reminded of the glory of this
son, who in the daily life is not noticed and he is considered as a simple and
poor man. These
occasions are: his baptism and his transfiguration.
Ø
The cloud reminds to us the cloud that covered the
meeting tent in the desert. The cloud
which is the symbol of the presence of God. From the cloud the voice is heard,
the disciples are frightened.
Ø
But when they
lift up their eyes, they see only Jesus.
Ø
He tells them, do
not say what has happened to anyone. Why? Because they will not understand
until the resurrection, then you will say it, now is not the time.
Ø Like the disciples, we also wish to be in the glory, in the joy without passing through the darkness of faith, through the difficult way in the following of the Lord who goes to the cross.
SECOND READING FROM THE
LETTER OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS 8,31-34
With this hymn to the love of God, Paul ends the
central section of his letter.
The dark faith of Abraham, in his journey to Mount
Moriah, the place of his son’s sacrifice, the sacrifice of all his hopes, is
the trusting faith of this hymn.
o
Who will be
against us? Who will accuse us? Who will condemn us?
o
If God is with us
nothing and nobody can harm us.
This is the security of the believer, even if
everything around him or her shout something different. Nothing and nobody will
separate us form the unconditional love of God in Christ Jesus.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- GUILLÉN TORRALBA, Juan,
“Génesis” en Comentario al Antiguo Testamento I. La Casa de la Biblia,
Estella Navarra, 1997.
- LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO,
comentarios de Luis Alonso Schökel. Misioneros Claretianos, 2010.
- LOZANO, Juan Manuel, Escritos María Antonia París, Estudio
crítico, “El Misionero Apostólico”. Barcelona 1985.
- RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras. Doble Comentario de las lecturas del
domingo. Año B. San Pablo, Bogotá,Colombia
2005.
§ VIÑAS, José María cmf y
BERMEJO, Jesús, cmf. “Autobiografía ” de
San Antonio María Claret.
The reason is that, as I have said, I am so soft-hearted and compassionate
that I can't bear seeing misfortune or misery without doing something to help.
I would take the bread out of my own mouth to give it to the poor. In fact, I
would abstain from putting it into my mouth in order to have something to give
to those who are asking for it. I am even scrupulous about spending anything at
all on myself when I think of the needs I can remedy. Well, then, if these
momentary physical misfortunes affect me so much, it is understandable what I
feel in my heart at the thought of the everlasting pains of hell--not for me,
but for all those who willingly live in mortal sin. (St. Anthony Ma. Claret. Autobiography 10.)
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