MARCH 12^th, 2006

SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT 2006

Genesis 22 Psalm: 116  Romans 8:31-37 Mark 2: 210

1. 5th March 1960 was the weekend of the Second Sunday of Lent. As a young seminarian, I was sent with 20 of my companions to the Missions as a test of vocations. Could we stand the rigours of village life and its primitiveness. The villagers spoke no English, and I spoke only a smattering of Marathi. The first night we were there, the Assistant Master of Novices came to me and said, “Michael tomorrow you will preach on the Gospel of the Transfiguration”.



But Father I do not even know the language. Well, then it will be interesting to hear what you say. That was the first major test of Obedience. I immediately sat down and wrote five paragraphs on the Transfiguration, went to one of my companions who spoke the language as his mother tongue, got it translated and then learnt it by heart. The Mass the next morning was 6:00 am. It got unbearably hot by 10 in the morning. Half way through the homily, I had a total mind block. But it was either the Spirit of the Lord, or sheer stubbornness on my part. I said, “As I was saying before, and I say it again... I started from the beginning , and this time, I went on to the end without stumbling to a glorious and full of relief “Amen.” That Assistant, my translating companion and I are priests today 45 years later - and still good friends. Obedience has a strange way of shaping people.

Our readings today have three points: Obedience, The Mountain and the Son.

a. Obedience: We have two calls to obedience today and a third one implied. The first of course was the command to Abraham. “Take your son, your only begotten Son Isaac and offer him to me in sacrifice.” It seems a bizarre command from a loving God. But in the time of Abraham and even today in certain parts of the world, “human sacrifices” were a way of life in appeasing the Powers of “gods and goddesses”. Some scholars will tell us that offering of produce: first fruits of the earth and of animals were common and acceptable. This was precisely the offering of Cain and Abel. Human sacrifices were taboo. The Scholars might like to put an antiseptic version of the early understanding of God. But history shows there were human sacrifices. From hindsight we know that God was testing Abraham and Isaac’s life was never in danger from a God of mercy and compassion.

a². The second call of obedience was to Peter and his companions. This is my beloved son listen to him. However, the implied obedience was the Obedience of Jesus to the Father. An obedience that led him to his death on the Cross.

 Isaac was the prefigurement of the Sacrifice of Jesus. He was saved by a lamb - a ram was found in the bushes. Jesus however, was not meant to die. As John tells us in the first reading. He came into the world, and as many as received him, they received the right to become God’s children. However many rejected him, and Jesus became the Lamb that was slain on the Altar vacated by Isaac.

a³ . Obedience is the test we all face, often in the face of a Cross. Recently, I was in a crowded bus, and there was a 5 year old boy who held on tightly to his father’s hand. The child could not see above the adults, and he did not know where they had to get off. Is this our stop he asked his father. Not yet, the father replied. The child was content with that.

 When we have a cross to carry, we too ask our Father in heaven not to put us to the test. We cannot see above the problems of our every day life, not do we know the hour or the day. But the Lord promises us that we will not get a Cross that is beyond our ability to carry !

b. The Mountain: Both Isaac and Peter, James and John are taken up the mountain. It is a place of mystery, it is symbolic of a place where one encounters God. We must leave the things that tie us down - financial, family, hobbies and addictions, and rise above them to encounter God.

 I said this in a homily at a Mass in the hospital. After Mass, one lady said to me. Father I cannot even get out of this bed without help, how can I get to the mountain. Our mountain is not a physical place. We have to create a mountain where we can encounter God. For her it was rising above the callousness of a doctor who treated her as another bed that was occupied, and not a human being with feelings, a nurse who spoke English with an accent, the lady did not understand and who got angry when the old lady did not reply, it was the fact that none of her children came to visit her.

 A week later she was quiet and serene. She told me that she climbed her mountain each evening at seven, when the food trays were taken away, and before the night nurses came to put out the lights. Each evening she encountered her Lord. And in her soft voice she assured me “I rejoiced when I heard them say, Let us Go to God’s house. And now we are here within the gates of Jerusalem”

b² Little did she know that it was at mount of Jerusalem that Abraham brought Isaac to be sacrificed, and on the same mount: the Lamb of God gave his life for our sakes.

c. The Son. The Son appears in all three readings. Isaac the Son of Abraham our Father in Faith. Jesus the Son of God. It is this Son that invited Peter and James and John into an intimacy of the Cross, with the promise of the resurrection. However, it is the second reading that gives us some of the reasons of the importance of the Son.

c¹ It is the Son who will be our advocate before the Father. He will call us by name - which is the meaning of Vocare in the word Advocate. He will call us and be our “letter of recommendation” before the world and the heavenly court.

c² Secondly it is the Son who has both the power and the desire to plead our case before God. Ask anything in my name, and the Father will grant it to you.

c³ finally it is the Son who will be a Shield in the day of Battle. The Son protects us against hardship, distress, persecution, famine and other earthly dangers.

Obedience, come to the Mountain, encounter the Son who takes us to God - our readings are rich in food for thought. No wonder we will hear at Easter time the Words of Isaiah: Let everyone who Thirsts come to the waters, - and eat what is good and delight in rich foods.” Isaiah 55. Lent is a time when we prepare for this banquet - by obedience, by going to the mountain to encounter God, and in the name of the Son who is beloved by the Father.