2nd Sunday of Lent: Genesis (15: 5-12 17-18), Philippians (3:17 4:1) Luke (9:28-36)
The readings for the 2nd Sunday of lent invite us into a deeper understanding of faith, hope and the call to transformation. In the first reading from Genesis, God makes a profound covenant with Abram, taking him outside to gaze at the stars and promising that his descendants will be as numerous as those stars. This promise comes amidst uncertainty and fear, reminding us that God sees beyond our immediate circumstances. Abrams’ trust in God’s promise shines as a beacon of hope in moments of doubt and darkness. We are called to cultivate that same faith, believing that God is faithful even when our world seems chaotic or our path unclear.
By the time God called Abraham, he was already 75 years old, a wealthy man by those days’ standards. The head of numerous clans, the owner of hundreds of sheep and cattle. At that age, and so well settled, any one would feel most reluctant to emigrate. God invited Abraham to leave his own country and people and to move to another, hundreds of miles away to the west, about which he knew nothing, yet Abraham did not question God; he simply trusted Him and obeyed. One is surprised at how simply, scripture puts it: “Abraham went as Yahweh told him” (genesis 12:4). In ancient near eastern treaties, loyalty to a sovereign was often rewarded with land or protection- paralleling Abram’s trust in God.
On reaching Canan the country God had spoken to him about, together with all his clan, sheep and cattle, Abraham found that the land was occupied by people too strong for him to dislodge. God sustained Abraham’s faith by making to him a double promise that the land he had come to, would one day belong to his discontents, that he would give him a son of his own, in spite of his old age, and of the fact that his wife, Sarah, had long since crossed the age when women can have children. To reassure Abraham further, God decided to take an oath, the way the nomad people of the region established their most solemn agreements: having slaughtered various animals and cut them in halves, these were placed in two rows, for the people making agreement to pass through. The meaning of the rite was clear: let it happen to me as it has happened to these slaughtered creatures if I prove unfaithful to our agreement. Strange enough, in today’s passage only God walked through; He did not ask Abraham to do the same, as the rite normally demanded. Realizing God’s kindness, Abraham’s faith in God was reassured. Knowing fully well the weakness of our faith in Him, Jesus in today’s Eucharist, will once again renew the covenant he signed with us at Baptism, while inviting us to renew our own commitment as Christians. Happy shall we be if we leave this church today with our alliance with Christ firmly re-established.
Today’s gospel describes the transfiguration of Jesus, a key event in the synoptic Gospels where Jesus is revealed in divine glory before three of his disciples. All three Mathew, Mark and Luke narrate in detail the event of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain. This already tells us that they considered it one of those key events in the life of Jesus, an event of extreme importance for Jesus for the apostles and for us all. The apostles must have narrated it time and again to the Christian communities under their care, helping them drive the right lessons from it. Luke adds more details in his narration, which Mathew and Mark do not give. Mathew and Mark mention six days, but Luke says about “eight days”, possibly including the day of Peter’s confession and the day of the event itself. Another important detail is that the transfiguration took place ‘while Jesus was praying’. Jesus was about to leave for Jerusalem where only a few weeks later his passion and death would take place. His suffering and death must have been as ever-present thought in his mind, we should not hesitate to say that, truly human as he was, Jesus needed his Fathers’ support. And his father hastened to reassure Jesus of his love for him. The words of the father “this is my son” were first for Jesus and then for all rest. For Jesus, they clearly meant “you are my son”. On the other hand, his conversation with Moses and Elijah, “about his passing which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem” helped Jesus to focus once again his fathers plans to save the world, and the abundant fruit that his passion and death would yield. The other Gospels do not mention what they discussed, Luke highlights the theme of Jesus’ mission and impending suffering. Once reassured of his Fathers love, Jesus went on to meet his passion without hesitation. Luke points this out when he says that soon after, “Jesus resolutely took the road for Jerusalem”.