Sunday, March 20, 2011

BAPTISM IS THE FIRST
VOCATION - THE SURE
SIGN OF GOD'S LOVE


March 20 - Second Sunday of Lent


All of Lent is a preparation for Easter and for reception of Baptism - this tradition is as old as the Church and has been renewed in recent decades in most parishes. Perhaps we Christians take our Baptism for granted - especially the "cradle Catholics" but scarcely one in 6 of the world's population are Christian and the number of Catholics even less. This is a cause for concern: the Lord brings no one into existence without a specific role for that individual to play but disheartening numbers of Christians in our time- including Catholics - are getting many things right in their lives . . . except "the only thing necessary."

Baptism, in fact, is a real "call" or "vocation" - the basic one, in fact, without which we are not Christians and Catholics and so not inside the "one fold" under the guidance of the One Shepherd. Certainly, all human beings are loved and cherished by God but we are not sure how He relates to them in particular.

The First Reading this Sunday has, thus, a profound significance for all of us who can see in it a foreshadowing of our own call. Abraham, "our father in faith" is a splendid figure. No longer young (at least by our standards) he sets out on a journey to a land he knows not, leaving behind him all the security of home. In this he is an example for future priests in our time who set out on a difficult road and for a life to be lived in uncertain circumstances. They need more faith than usual and need our prayers.


The Responsorial Psalm, as usual, confirms the main thought in the Reading. We trust in the Lord because we are not orphans but beloved sons and daughters whom he calls to live in the same conditions as he lived - some good days but quite a few bad ones - and with the total confidence he had in His Father."

God has saved us and called us to be holy." Why, because we are good people? No, but because God wanted us and loved us long before - and even now far more totally - than we love Him. This was God's plan from all eternity but it took practical shape in Christ our Savior who "abolished death" i.e. removed its destructive power in his Passion and Resurrection, and brought us the Good News of immortality and a future full of happiness.

St. Paul gives us this message in the Second Reading. Finally, the Gospel is strategically placed both in the context of the overall liturgy and also – harking back to the days when Lent was a major challenge and people really did penance - when the enthusiasm of the first week had begun to fade and they needed a word of encouragement and a vision to help them on the rocky path to Easter.. Moses and Elias appear with Jesus - all three of them fasted for forty days and were called to close friendship with God the Father. The message is clear: no life is free of suffering but the suffering is never meaningless for those who understand the total picture and the glorious conclusion if we take God at his word. Not that this is automatic. "The first words are "six days later," i.e. after Peter has declared that Christ is the Son of God (and then told him not to bother getting executed in Jerusalem!). These three men, who are now stunned by the vision of the transfigured Jesus, will so forget it in Gethsemane that . . . they fall asleep! And Peter, to cap it all, will go on a short time afterwards to deny that he ever heard of anyone called "Jesus," and confirm his denial with the strongest language he knows! This, too, is an encouragement. If Peter could come back from a situation like that and be re-confirmed by the Master ... there is hope still for the worst of us!

~ March 2011 Concord Ch. 6