Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for March 12, 2006
Liturgical Year B-Cycle II
2nd Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Joshua Nyoni
Topic: Listening to Christ
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Reading I
Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18
God put Abraham to the test. He called to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” he replied. Then God said: “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.”

When they came to the place of which God had told him,  Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the LORD’s messenger called to him from heaven,  “Abraham, Abraham!” “Here I am!” he answered. “Do not lay your hand on the boy,” said the messenger. “Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God,  since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.” As Abraham looked about,  he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he went and took the ram  and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.

Again the LORD’s messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:  “I swear by myself, declares the LORD,  that because you acted as you did  in not withholding from me your beloved son,  I will bless you abundantly  and make your descendants as countless  as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore;  your descendants shall take possession  of the gates of their enemies,  and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing— all this because you obeyed my command.”

Reading II
Rom 8: 31b-34
Brothers and sisters: 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?

Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us, who will condemn? Christ Jesus it is who died . or, rather, was raised .  who also is at the right hand of God,  who indeed intercedes for us.

Gospel
Mark 9: 2-10
Jesus took Peter, James, and John  and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them,  and his clothes became dazzling white,  such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,  and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,  “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents:  one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;  from the cloud came a voice,   “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves,  questioning what rising from the dead meant.
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Everyday children die.  You know that the death of a child is always something that disturbs us. It is something devastating whether the cause is through an accident, disease or illness but it is always something disturbing, something you would not want.  It is every parent’s agony.  Death, through natural causes, is one thing.  To be asked to give up one’s own child to death, voluntarily, I think, is something unthinkable.  Yet, that was what was deemed of Abraham when God put him to the test.  Abraham was willing not to withhold from God his only beloved son.  I think, in that sacrifice, in that giving of his only beloved son, we see here a greater measure of love, of obedience, of faith, in that very willingness to sacrifice what one holds most dear.
 
Now, if you were asked to sacrifice your son, would you do that?  God spared Abraham’s beloved son, Isaac, from death.  But God’s beloved son was not spared from death.  This very point is in the second reading that we have just heard today.  God did not spare his own son but handed him over for us all, to save us.  What a sacrifice!  What love! 
 
In the gospel today, Jesus changed in appearance.  His garments glistened, became as white as snow.  I think we are experiencing just small amount of that today, a little bit of such snow, which we needed so badly.  But what do we learn from that appearance of Jesus, being changed, as it were, to appear, I would say, even whiter than the snow we have?  What does that mean?  With that change formation, Jesus was giving something special to his own disciples, something a little bit out of this world, a glimpse of the heavenly glory.  The glory of how their bodies would be clothed in glory at the resurrection.  He was giving to Peter, James, and John, some kind of a glimpse, a taste of how things will be.  This is what we see here. 
 
With that change of appearance,  Jesus was also preparing his closest friends, Peter, James, and  John, for the scandal of the cross, which we shall hear about in the two or three weeks to come.  That event was going to shock them.  But they had to have something in their minds that there is not only the suffering but there is also something beyond that.  Jesus had to prepare them. 
 
We have just heard in the gospel, why they were up there on the mountain.  Peter feels that joy, that inexpressible joy, that happiness and what did he do?  He went on to say even those very things, which I think, you and I would have regretted saying.  This happened to Peter, this also happens to us.  Sometimes, when we are so happy we forget everything and we say certain things that we feel we should not have said.  This reminds me of a Latin saying “In vino veritas” (in wine there is truth.) If you want to know the truth, give that person some wine. You will hear everything, even those thing you were not supposed to hear.  When we have taken wine, we are so happy.  We say everything.  This is similar to what happened to Peter.  I don’t know, maybe he had some wine.  I don’t know.  However, it was that joy, that happiness, that Peter experienced along with that peace.  Peter experienced that peak moment and at that moment, Jesus was totally different.  His divinity did appear.

Like Jesus, we too have a twofold dimension about us.  In each one of us, there is something that is human and something that is divine.  We need therefore, to develop that divine aspect.  The gospel teaches us to realize that life fluctuates.  There are high points (the experiences of the apostles today), and there are low points (the apostles would not remain up there, but would go down to the valley to face daily life).  During the high points, life is beautiful, we love everyone, we hug our friends, and we forgive all our enemies, our smiles are as wide as ever.  However, during the low points, nothing goes right.  We feel oppressed, misjudged, out of place, we number more enemies, we find fault with everyone.  When thing are like this, we should remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel.  There is something greater.  The Gospel teaches us that our faith will sometimes be high and other times low.  There are mountains and valleys to our faith.  When we are standing on a mountain, it is easy to believe and love God, as the Apostles did today.  However, when we are standing in a valley, it is hard to believe and to love.  Nevertheless, if we remain faithful during these trials, God will give us a reward.  What we need to do is to Listen to Jesus as the Gospel tells us today.  “This is my beloved son, listen to Him.”  We need to follow his way.
 
Now, my question is, “Do we really listen to Jesus or do we only hear Him?”  We don’t listen.  There is a difference between listening and hearing.  You know better.  However, we need to listen to Him.  This is what is expected of us.  
 

May these few thoughts help us to reach Jesus, to reach God.