March 4, 2009
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Breaking Open the Word By James Cavanagh March 8: Second Sunday of Lent Scripture readings: Overview: The binding of Isaac (first reading) prefigures the sacrifice of Christ. Although we customarily interpret the story of Isaac in terms of the testing of Abraham’s faith, later Judaism emphasized Isaac’s voluntary surrender of his own life. On this reading Abraham prefigures God who “did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all” (second reading). Abraham’s faith is rooted in his hope that God would be faithful to his promise that through Isaac his descendants would be as “countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore.” Commenting on this story, Origen (d. 254) said, “Abraham therefore hoped for the resurrection of Isaac and believed in a future that had not yet happened. Abraham knew himself to prefigure the image of future truth.” This week’s Gospel also portrays “the image of future truth” which points to Christ’s resurrection. Right before the Transfiguration, Jesus told the disciples how he must suffer and die “and after three days rise from the dead” (Mk 8:31). Luke’s version of the event makes the connection between the Transfiguration and the passion explicit as Moses and Elijah “spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Lk 9:30). The Transfiguration gives the disciples a vision of future glory, thus fortifying them for the difficult journey ahead. Key verse: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?” (Rom 8:32) “Catechism of the Catholic Church”: “For a moment Jesus discloses his divine glory, confirming Peter’s confession. He also reveals that he will have to go by the way of the cross at Jerusalem in order to “enter into his glory.” Moses and Elijah had seen God’s glory on the mountain; the law and the prophets had announced the Messiah’s sufferings. Christ’s Passion is the will of the Father: the Son acts as God’s servant; the cloud indicates the presence of the Holy Spirit. ‘The whole Trinity appeared: the Father in the voice; the Son in the man; the Spirit in the shining cloud’” (No. 555). Pope Benedict XVI: “The appearance of his glory is connected with the Passion motif. Jesus’ divinity belongs with the cross. John expressed this intrinsic interconnectedness of cross and glory when he said that the cross is Jesus’ ‘exaltation,’ and that his exaltation is accomplished in no other way than in the cross” (“Jesus of Nazareth”). Application: The Transfiguration of Jesus reveals the glory that lies hidden within his human flesh. It not only gives us a foretaste of future glory, it also shows us the path we must take in order to reach our destiny. The Christian life is a process of ongoing conversion and continual transformation in which the Lord gradually changes us from the “inside out” through the grace of the sacraments, particularly penance and the Eucharist. |
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