Second Sunday of Lent, Year B, (Lectionary #26)
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-16
Psalm 116:10. 15-29
Rom 8:31b-34
Mk 9:2-10
Throughout the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has these ongoing encounters with other figures in the narrative. They are driven to him because of an illness, or because they are suffering from an unclean spirit, or have a family member who is suffering from a disease, etc. These encounters are as diverse as the people presented in the Gospel, but yet they are all human in their desires. They are driven by the hope of a cure; they are driven by their love for a suffering family member or friend; they are even driven by the presence of the unclean spirit.
But what unites them all is a desire for freedom and healing. Whether that is the leper in the first chapter who runs forward and throws himself at the feet of Jesus with the impassioned plea, ‘If you will it, you can make me clean!’ or Jairus who comes to Jesus to intercede for his daughter, ‘Master, come lay your hands on her so that she may get well and live!’
In all of these encounters, Mark is teaching us that to come to Jesus, to meet Him, to be encountered by Him, is to come to freedom and peace. It is to leave that encounter changed into who we ought to be, because we have been met by the One Who created us and formed us in our mother’s womb.
Yet, so often we have these barriers that we put in place that prevent our meeting of Jesus. We see one such barrier in our first reading as Isaac surely would have balked at Abraham’s offering; he most likely would not see or understand God’s plan, and,like most human beings, he would have reacted against it. How often have we, as disciples of the Lord, balked at what God has asked us to do because we cannot see God’s plan; and we want to see the whole plan before we move forward… And God simply replies: ‘Trust…’ as he does with Abraham in our first reading this morning.
But what we have to remember is that the Lord God has been working on Abraham for a lifetime. Calling him forth from his homeland in Ur, God continually refined that call, continually called him by name, eventually even giving him a new name (from Abram to Abraham!) showing that God was slowly but surely remaking him into something new, something greater, because God was making Abraham into what he was meant to be: the father of many nations. But this fatherhood would only come about once Abraham had this sublime and complete trust that God’s promise would actually come to pass.
These encounters that God makes with Abraham come to pass slowly, but surely. As we look over our lives, we can see those same encounters, at least on some level. When we were Baptized, we were given a new name and a new identity, for it is in the cleansing waters of Baptism that we are first called sons and daughters of God. When we received Holy Communion for the first time (and repeatedly after that!), we have this desire to become not just what we receive, but we grow in that desire to become more closely aligned with whom we receive. At Confirmation, that identity as a son or daughter of God is strengthened to become His living witness out in the midst of the world. The Sacraments of Vocation in Marriage and Holy Orders orient us to living out that relationship with God in a dynamic and powerful way to help the other get to heaven.
Our lives are constant encounters with God as He strives to continually to remake us in His image, if we but allow Him to do so.
And that second part is perhaps the hardest part: ‘if we but allow Him to do so…’ In our Gospel passage, Jesus brings Peter, James and John up the mountain for another encounter, but a much deeper and more profound encounter; because this is the one time prior to the Resurrection that they get to see Jesus as He truly is: True God and True Man, the Beloved Son of the Father!
And Peter’s confession of faith in this moment shows that desire to constantly be remade in this image: to dwell forever with the Living God!
Yet, our own sins and weaknesses veil our eyes from seeing Jesus and being aware of these encounters with the Living and True God. And instead of loving those in our midst as God loves them, we can so easily fall into the traps of using others for our own personal gain. We can so easily fall into the old traps of sin, despite our desire to live in the freedom promised as a son or daughter of God.
And this is where the beauty of the Sacrament of Confession comes in, for it is in the encounter available in this great Sacrament that we are able to shed that old person of sin and be freed to once again let that light of Christ shine from within, as it did once upon Mt. Tabor, as we hear in this Gospel passage.
But I know that there is a fear towards this Sacrament, the same fear that paralyzed Isaac in this first reading, that also will come to paralyze Peter when he stands in the High Priest’s courtyard during the trial of Jesus. We can remain paralyzed by that fear, or come back to Jesus for the freedom that He desires to give.
This coming Tuesday evening, from 7 to 9 pm, every parish in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati will be open and available for confessions, especially for those who have been away from the Sacrament for some time. It is a time available for an encounter with the Living and True God who desires to bring you to the freedom that comes from being a son or daughter of God; it is a time to be remade back into the image and likeness of the Living God, who loves you so much, He handed over His own Son so that we can have this lasting freedom, a freedom that endures into Eternal Life!
If you have been away from this Sacrament, I would like to invite you to tune your ears and heart to listen to the Beloved Son of the Father calling you a beloved son or daughter as well; for that call leads only to freedom and joy; a freedom and joy that nothing in this world can even approach.
Written by, Fr. Kyle Schnipple