Don't Stop Now What You Promised for Lent...

The view from the top was
g-r-r-eat! Don't stop now
what you promised for Lent

It's Sunday
March 4 - Second Sunday in Lent

Abraham, "our father in faith," shows just what faith was his in the First Reading. Moving from a situation -  as he saw it - of having no son or heir because his good wife could not give him one, instead he became - amazingly - a father and a father who was promised more descendants than there are stars in the sky. Great! But the story continues and this time the Lord clearly has changed his plans: Abraham must sacrifice  his son! No descendants, no future. But Abraham rise to the occasion: what the Lord wants is good enough for him. And the rest of the story we know. What a tremendous example for many of us - perhaps for all of us - who face huge challenges in silence.

The Responsorial Psalm - 115 - is headed in the Bible: "The One True God." Trust in impossible circumstances always elicits God's blessing. He can do EVERYTHING - as long as we believe in Him.

ALLELUIA ! Why? Because in the Second Reading we have a quote from St. Paul which - for once - matches beautifully the thought in the First Reading. The combination of these two powerful authors should help us increase our faith which in these difficult days for the economy and the Church is often sorely tried. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son but at the last moment He changes course. Not so when we are talking of the Son of God who came on earth - already a huge sacrifice: (the distance between us and God is infinite) and then lived a very ordinary life capped by a Passion and Death where nothing was allowed to diminish his pain and humiliation. Did I say that God loves us little creatures? How inadequate! He is just CRAZY about us! Why don't we think of this more often - and try to understand it?

Sometimes we ask: why didn't Jesus manifest his power and beauty to the people generally rather than to a very low-key audience on the mountain-top (GOSPEL)? Probably because such a manifestation would have been interpreted by the Religious Leaders as they interpreted his miracles: "we know how he does it: he's in league with Satan!" And the people - cowed by fear of the Scribes and Pharisees and ground down by impossible laws (especially the ones added by the S and P to the Law of God given to Moses) would have accepted this explanation. Actually, the Lord doubtless had in mind the slowness of his followers to understand him and so the need to manifest his power and his mission gradually. And he was perfectly right. We remember that the same three people fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane and then fled for their lives, completely forgetting that great morning on the mountain-top!


~ March 2012 Concord