If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8: 31
Here I Am (an invitation to trust)
When was the last time these words were more than just a scripture verse for you? When were they ‘actual’? What does Saint Paul mean by these words? As human beings, we tend to bring to life the attitude that, ‘I will get the proper results if I put in the proper effort or proper effort equals proper results’. We bring this attitude to our work/business life. We bring it to our relationships and even to our prayer/faith life, yet we soon learn that it always disappoints us.
Our work/business life does not seem to get us ahead as we would like; how often we use up our patience and durability to reconcile with our others and we do not succeed. We devote time in prayer, but we do not seem to be in touch with our God. Many things in our lives bring us to a paradox.
The readings this weekend challenge us to revise our approach for something better. Believers/Christians must acknowledge that there is a greater force at work in our lives, and this is God. Our lives are shaped by God’s concern for us. He is beyond our human calculations and predictions, beyond our formulas and expectations, he is beyond our control and grasp. He must be obeyed and trusted wholeheartedly. (in the words of Pope Benedict XVI) ‘it is he who writes on crooked lines straight’.
There is no better individual or person who truly dedicated everything about his life to God than Abraham. He is called the ‘father of believers’ for a reason. His attitude to God is summarized in the phrase –‘here I am’. In the first reading his faith and obedience are put to the ‘test’ by God. God makes an unthinkable request of him:
“Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you.”
Why would a loving God even ask such a thing of Abraham? And him of all people? Isaac means everything to Abraham. He is God’s gift to Abraham in his old age! Isaac represents his posterity.
Yet Abraham does not withhold anything from God. He does exactly as God commands him.
What would your response be? Have you been in similar situations in life when God has asked you more or what you thought was too much? Think about that conversation between the two (father and son) as they ascend up the mountain? What was it like?
As Abraham takes out the knife to do as God has told him, The Lord’s messenger says do not do it! ‘I know how devoted you are to God (not withholding anything). How often we are Christians only at certain times or when it favors us. We are choosy as to when to be Christian, but when it is tough or demanding, we flee or are silent.
Even in trials Abraham remained a believer through and through. He is the patron saint of trust and obedience. There is a deeper point beyond the spectacle of the transfiguration. Jesus transfigures for a reason. There is a crisis of trust and confidence in the disciple’s camp. They have lost all interest in proclaiming the kingdom. Jesus’ mission is in clear jeopardy. Why?
Whenever Jesus mentions his suffering, death and resurrection, the disciples ‘tune him out’. They do not want to hear such talk. Their expectation of the Messiah/savoir are political, nationalistic and triumphalist. A messiah is a winner and victor, not a loser as Jesus says he will become. The Jesus they want is a miracle/wonder worker! Are they putting in the efforts for no results? They assume places of honor and positions. At some point Peter steps before Jesus and says he will not let this suffering happen. (Jesus said quickly, ‘get behind me Satan)
To follow Jesus is to follow him to the cross, through which the glory is received.
Therefore, Jesus now takes three of his most trusted disciples up the mountain, and there he transfigured before them. He gives them a deeper insight on who he really is and his mission! His clothes are dazzling white (this means he is divine). Moses and Elijah appear alongside him (These two are the most revered Patriarchs in Jewish faith (Jesus is one of them!). Then, a voice from the heavens says: ‘This is my beloved son, listen to him.’
The command is clear, Jesus must be obeyed and trusted. His suffering and death (cross) is the way he will save all.
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?
God is for us and we must trust in his plan for the world. We must stand by him and his ways even when it makes no sense to do so. The Gospel is empty words if it is devoid of renunciation.
What tests do modern believers/Christians face? What crosses can we not avoid today? Is it standing up to a culture of no Life (secularism?) Is it refusing to bow down to a world of effort and result and ask? What and where is God’s concern today? To be a Christian oftentimes today will invite risk, ridicule and no praise, are we willing to bear this?
Who can be against us, if God is for us? Trust and believe.
-Fr. Anthony
Readings of the Mass
SELECT HEREfor the Audio recording of the Readings of Sunday, February 28th, 2021, Second Sunday of Lent.
SELECT HERE for the Readings of Sunday, February 28th, 2021, Second Sunday of Lent.
reflections
Season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 17th with Easter Sunday on April 4th
During Lent, we are asked to devote ourselves to seeking the Lord in prayer and reading Scripture, to service by giving alms, and to practice self-control through fasting. Many know of the tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent, but we are also called to practice self-discipline and fast in other ways throughout the season. Contemplate the meaning and origins of the Lenten fasting tradition in this reflection. In addition, the giving of alms is one way to share God's gifts—not only through the distribution of money, but through the sharing of our time and talents.
-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
READ HERE a special Lenten message from Bishop Robert McManus, the Bishop of the Diocese of Worcester.
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the mass: second sunday of lent, february 28th, 2021
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