A Homily – The Second Sunday of Lent (Year B)

First Reading – Genesis 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 115(116):10, 15-19 ©

Second Reading – Romans 8:31-34 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 17:5

The Gospel According to Mark 9:2 – 10 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 God never ordered the sacrifice of Isaac, but the culture Abraham came from did. His culture demanded that he make a sacrifice of his firstborn son, this may have been a literal sacrifice as narrated in the Abrahamic myth, or it may have been simply that he was required to give his firstborn into the service of the temple. Whatever the case, Abraham rejected that demand, and by doing so he showed his people that God would accept something different in return: a lamb in the place of a human child.

 Abraham renegotiated the contract.

 Understand.

 God did not want the sacrifice of Isaac, and God had no desire for the lamb either. God does not demand blood sacrifice; God never has and God never will. What God desired was reform.

 In keeping with God’s abiding interest in justice and mercy, God desired for Abraham’s people to forego both the horrors of human sacrifice, as well as the tradition of subjecting their offspring to servitude at the temple or to whomever the temple might sell him.

 Remember.

 Abraham had already rejected this system when he sent his actual first-born away, driving Ishmael and his mother Hagar into the desert, before such a demand could be made of him. When it came to Isaac, Sarah’s son, he doubled down.

 Ultimately Abraham gave God what God wanted; God did not ask for it directly, but Abraham heard God speaking from the hidden chamber of his heart. He listened just as Jesus listened when he chose to give his life so that others would be spared. Abraham heard God and made the courageous  choice to keep Isaac close and offered he a lamb instead, as many lamb’s as it would take to spare his son and satisfy the temple’s demand. As many lambs as it would take to free his people from an awful demand.

 Be mindful!

 God did not want Jesus’ blood either, the Sanhedrin and the Romans did. It was Jesus’ political enemies who wanted him dead. They would have killed him and all of his followers if Jesus had not gone to the cross without putting up a fight, and God loved him for that, for the mercy he showed his fellows by not letting the cup of bitter dregs pass from him and by going to his death that way.

 Know this.

 Jesus’ death was not a cosmic event, it was a political murder; it was an all-together ordinary event. There is nothing more to it than this.

 Jesus’ death was never a substitutionary sacrifice as the apostle suggests, Paul did a disservice to the Church when he made this assertion; he deviated from the way when he translated the meaning of the crucifixion into that. By tying it to the cult of animal sacrifice, he tied it to a system of justice that is inherently transactional, commercial and corrupt.

 Consider the words of the psalmist.

 Trust in God not in men.

 The promises that God makes for our well-being and salvation are not promises that are meant to be realized in this world. Justice in this world comes through the labor of human beings.

 Trust God, be merciful, live justly, walk humbly…these are the characteristics of the faith.

 Know this.

 As Christians we are bound to read the Gospel in the context of its truthfulness.

 Let the Spirit of Truth guide us, even if it means rejecting a passage such as those that relate the episode in Jesus’ ministry referred to as the Transfiguration.

 There may have been an event, when Jesus together with James and John went up the mountain by themselves. It may have been that at such event Jesus connected for his followers the essential message that his ministry was in line with that of Moses, the liberator and law giver, as with Elijah, the truthteller. But the supernatural events described here did not happen as they are narrated..

 God, the creator of the universe, God does not engage in supernatural activities. God is the author of nature and its laws; God does not violate these laws, not for any reason.

 It may be that Jesus also meant for the disciples to believe that the ministry of in keeping with Enoch, the Son of Man whose return was expected. It may be that Jesus warned the disciples that his ministry would lead to his death, but like Enoch, the Son of Man, death would not stop him; he would go on, and he would also return. Or, it may be that James and John made up this story after Jesus’ death, as a piece of propaganda meant to bolster the claims they were making about the man from Nazareth.

 Always read the gospel in such a way that you strip the fantastical elements from it. The fantastical is not elucidating and such narratives are contrary to the way.

 You must learn to see through those fantasies and fictions so that you may understand what they tell you about what the people believed who witnessed Jesus’ life and wrote his story in that way. There is no other wisdom to be had from them.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today.

 The reading for today is a pure distillation of mythological tropes common among the Hebrew people. It carries forward a set of theological themes that were very important in the first century. They situate the early Jesus Movement clearly within Rabbinical Judaism, which is otherwise known as Pharisaical Judaism.

 Here Jesus is presented as a Pharisee, a Jew of the Synagogue, his followers address him as Rabbi, and the central concern among the actors in the text: Jesus, Peter, James, and John, concerns the foretelling that Jesus will rise from the dead.

 In ancient Judaism, only the Pharisees taught the resurrection of the dead.

 Beyond these immediate concerns the writers of Mark’s Gospel were interested in conveying the message that their teachings were in total alignment with historical Judaism, therefore they depict Jesus as another Abraham, a man who was also visited by divine messengers, and who was also transformed by God as symbolized by the changing of his name, from Abram to Abraham.

 Only in the Jesus’ narrative his disciples witness the change, they saw him in the exalted state the Moses experienced when he spoke to God on the mountain, and they show him being given the endorsement of Moses, as well as the prophet Elijah.

 This trope is a concrete expression of the faith that the Jesus Movement held: the faith that their teaching was in alignment with the Patriarchs, the Law Giver and the Prophets. By drawing on these tropes they were communicating to those who came after them that in Jesus, the whole history of the people was complete.

 This is the message that the pericope intends to convey. Above all else, it should be remembered that the story itself is a fiction; these events never happened, they are a literary invention. They do not transmit a historical truth about the Life of Jesus, but rather a historical truth about what people believed, and wanted other’s to believe concerning Jesus…roughly fifty years after his death.

  

First Reading – Genesis 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18 ©

The Sacrifice of Abraham, our Father in Faith

God put Abraham to the test. ‘Abraham, Abraham’ he called. ‘Here I am’ he replied. ‘Take your son,’ God said ‘your only child Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him as a burnt offering, on a mountain I will point out to you.’

When they arrived at the place God had pointed out to him, Abraham built an altar there, and arranged the wood. Then he bound his son Isaac and put him on the altar on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and seized the knife to kill his son.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven. ‘Abraham, Abraham’ he said. ‘I am here’ he replied. ‘Do not raise your hand against the boy’ the angel said. ‘Do not harm him, for now I know you fear God. You have not refused me your son, your only son.’ Then looking up, Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. Abraham took the ram and offered it as a burnt-offering in place of his son.

The angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time from heaven. ‘I swear by my own self – it is the Lord who speaks – because you have done this, because you have not refused me your son, your only son, I will shower blessings on you, I will make your descendants as many as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants shall gain possession of the gates of their enemies. All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants, as a reward for your obedience.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 115(116):10, 15-19 ©

I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.

I trusted, even when I said:

  ‘I am sorely afflicted,’

O precious in the eyes of the Lord

  is the death of his faithful.

I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.

Your servant, Lord, your servant am I;

  you have loosened my bonds.

A thanksgiving sacrifice I make;

  I will call on the Lord’s name.

I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.

My vows to the Lord I will fulfil

  before all his people,

in the courts of the house of the Lord,

  in your midst, O Jerusalem.

I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.

 

Second Reading – Romans 8:31-34 ©

God did not Spare His Own Son

With God on our side who can be against us? Since God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all, we may be certain, after such a gift, that he will not refuse anything he can give. Could anyone accuse those that God has chosen? When God acquits, could anyone condemn? Could Christ Jesus? No! He not only died for us – he rose from the dead, and there at God’s right hand he stands and pleads for us.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 17:5

Glory and praise to you, O Christ!

From the bright cloud the Father’s voice was heard: ‘This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.’

Glory and praise to you, O Christ!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 9:2 – 10 ©

This is my Son, the Beloved

Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain where they could be alone by themselves. There in their presence he was transfigured: his clothes became dazzlingly white, whiter than any earthly bleacher could make them. Elijah appeared to them with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. Then Peter spoke to Jesus: ‘Rabbi,’ he said ‘it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ He did not know what to say; they were so frightened. And a cloud came, covering them in shadow; and there came a voice from the cloud, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.’ Then suddenly, when they looked round, they saw no one with them any more but only Jesus.

As they came down from the mountain he warned them to tell no one what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They observed the warning faithfully, though among themselves they discussed what ‘rising from the dead’ could mean.

 

The Second Sunday of Lent (Year B)