2nd Sunday of Lent 2024
Genesis 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18; Romans 8:31-34; Mark 9:2-10
We have three very powerful readings today. I want to begin by considering the second of them, from St. Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome, because this links the other two together.
Paul starts with a remarkable question: “With God on our side, who can be against us?” Do you believe that God is on your side? It is easy to envisage God as stern, if not hostile, yet Paul kicks such a notion firmly into touch. Notice something else: God is on our side, not against anyone else, but in a totally positive way.
Too often in history, and still today, various groups have claimed to have God on their side as a justification for war, aggression, terrorism, violence of every kind. The Crusades, the Wars of Religion in Europe, the anti-Jewish pogroms, have all seen one side pitted against another, with at least one side carrying out atrocities in the name of God. The folk singer Bob Dylan commented wryly on this outlook in the 1960s, with his song “(With) God on our side”, concluding with the lines “I can’t think for you, you’ve got to decide, if Judas Iscariot had God on his side”.
Today, Islamic fundamentalists in many parts of the world carry out massacres and inhuman punishments in the name of God; fundamentalist Christians use God’s name to justify the death penalty and the persecution of marginalised groups. Here in Europe, Putin has the backing of the Patriarch of Moscow in claiming that his invasion and attempted takeover of Ukraine constitute a sacred mission.
None of this is compatible with St. Paul’s question. God is for us, and not against anybody. His sacrifice of His Son was, as far as humanity is concerned, a totally positive action, securing redemption for the whole human race.
It is noticeable that God has done what, ultimately, He did not require Abraham to do. I recall a priest complaining forcefully that we should not use the story of Abraham’s surrender of Isaac in the liturgy, because it accepts the concept of human sacrifice. Admittedly, it was written in a setting in which human sacrifice was accepted. We would have to say that God never calls us to do evil, and would not ask anyone to kill another person, let alone their own child. We might add that God’s sacrifice of His own Son is the sacrifice to put an end to all sacrifices, other than the making present of that one ultimate sacrifice in the Mass.
There are two things to notice. Firstly, Abraham is, in the end, prevented from carrying out the planned sacrifice: secondly, what is actually demanded of him is total trust in God, the faith which justifies, and a willingness to let go, not to cling even to God’s greatest gifts: a son, and, apparently, the promise of an inheritance.
Abraham had been led to believe that his son Isaac was to be the guarantee of that inheritance. Now he is seemingly being asked to surrender that hope, and to trust that God will fulfil His promise in a previously unseen way. Finally, the fulfilment did come through Isaac, but only after Abraham had demonstrated his willingness to let go.
Letting go is an important feature of the Christian life. Peter did not want to let go of the vision on the mountain of Transfiguration. That was hardly surprising: it was an experience far surpassing anything that he could have imagined. To see his Lord transfigured, shining with divine glory, and to see as well Moses, the giver of the Law, and Elijah, the greatest of the prophets: why would he not wish to hold onto this? Hence his perfectly reasonable suggestion: “It is wonderful for us to be here, so let us make three tents”…and then we can stay here forever.
It cannot and must not happen. He must allow the vison to fade, and must make his way back down the mountain of Transfiguration to the valley of mediocrity, and eventually to the Garden of the Agony and the courtyard of panic and denial, if the vision is to be fulfilled in the Resurrection.
What about us? How ready are we to let go of everything in order to receive God’s greatest gift, that of eternal life? Our Lenten self-denial prepares us, and we should not be afraid or unwilling to give up everything, including eventually our earthly existence because, as St. Paul has reminded us, God IS on our side. What is there of which you need to let go?
