Homily for 25 February 2024 by Fr. Oscarito Antonio Boongaling
Second Sunday of Lent
When we venture into a new phase in life (or instance going to college, getting married, settling a divorce, responding to a call to the priesthood or religious life, this brings about a whole lot of changes, it involves an intense time of discernment and soul searching, it leads us to weighing the benefits, disadvantages and options that are offered as compared to the life that we are about to leave behind. There can be anxiety and fear because of the unknown that awaits us. Several times we are asked to let go of old ways of behaving and even familiar sources of coping and security. We are invited to enter into a deeper and more serious giving and committing of ourselves. This can be painful yet we knew by experience the relief and peace that comes when we remain open to learn, humble, and faithful.
This was the experience of Abraham the Patriarch in the first reading. The narrative was frequently known and called as the Sacrifice of Isaac. But different commentators would refer to it as the testing of Abraham’s character, the testing of the quality of his faith. Remember that God has made a promise to Abraham of descendants and blessings more than the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore. “Yet here God wanted to strip away from Abraham the very sign of stability and security for his promises – Isaac. God left Abraham no choice but to trust in God and fall back on God as his security and stability.” (The Word Becomes Flesh, Vol. II, Charles A. Curran, p. 9-11) As Abraham submitted to God’s test, his son was spared. In this new phase of life and faith, Abraham committed to God because of a higher good.
The responsorial psalm is a prayer of thanksgiving by someone who has been delivered from the challenges and hardships of life. His or her deliverer was God. This is against the mentality at the present time – to win at all costs. There is the stigma of failure. There is the criteria of success which is based on a person’s efforts alone and his reliance on him/herself. But the psalmist teaches us that our renewed faith enables us to fall back on God and to be completely dependent on him.
In the second reading, the apostle Paul has pointed to us that in our new lives as Christians, our sense of security comes from having a strong ally and powerful intercessor. He is no one but God alone. God is on our side. He even did not withhold his own son whose suffering and death has ransomed us from sin and death. No person in history and no dimension of reality can frustrate God’s care and love for us.
In the Gospel we heard the account of the Transfiguration of our Lord as witnessed by the three disciples. They saw who Jesus really was. This experience will serve as a source of renewed courage when Christ has gone back to the Father and the disciples are left behind to continue his mission and work. But as they and Jesus were going down the mountain, he mentioned to them that such vision will not take away the plans of God for him and them, nor did it eliminate the reality of suffering, pain, loss and death that he (and eventually they) will face and experience. By his Transfiguration, Jesus shows us that the radiance of his glory comes from his acceptance of the trials and sufferings as foretold by the Law and the Prophets. The cross brought Jesus to the glory of Easter which his transfiguration foreshadows.
If this is the truth, are we ready to relinquish the plans we made and the dreams we reserve for our future? Are we willing to surrender to God’s hands what we hold and cherish dear as our security and stability and let God take their place? Are we willing not only to share in the glory and the fullness of life in God through Christ, but also embrace suffering, pain, loss and death? May we see our trials and difficulties not as hindrances to our future with God, but as opportunities towards it, opportunities in faith and hope, opportunities to purify us, our plans and our intentions.