“Lent is a good time to reflect upon salvation history. Last week in our first reading we heard the Genesis story about Noah, the great flood and the rainbow covenant between God and his people. We heard how the flood prefigured the waters of baptism. Now today we hear the familiar story of Abraham and Isaac. The story is depicted in the second stained glass window to my right. The only child miraculously born of Abraham and Sarah after they had waited 25 years for God’s promise to be fulfilled and then Abraham is put to the test and out of obedience to God, Abraham was willing to sacrifice his beloved son. If we were to read the full narrative in Mark we would hear how Isaac carries the wood that would be used as the instrument of his own sacrificial death. Jewish sacrificial rights required that a priest carry the wood to any burnt offering, but here it is Abraham’s son, not Abraham, his only legitimate son is doing the job of the priest. It also shows us that Isaac is not a little boy, but he’s at least a young man old enough to carry that would. In fact, Jewish theologians believe that Isaac was actually in his twenties at the time. Isaac surely would have been big enough and strong enough to get away from Abraham and escape and not allow him to bind him to the altar. So in Isaac we have an only begotten son miraculously born carrying wood which is intended as the means of his own sacrificial death, out of obedience to his father, willingly offering himself up in the sacrifice on Mount Moriah.
Fast forward 2000 years, twelve disciples of a wise teacher and a worker of wonders are asked by that teacher, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ One disciple, Simon, speaks out. ‘You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.’ Jesus commends Simon, changes his name to Peter the rock upon the Church is to be built and the gates of Hell not to prevail against it, but then Jesus tells them that before any of this is to happen he must first go up to Jarusalem, be condemned by the chief priests, the scribes and the elders where he is then to suffer and die and be raised in three days. This stuns the apostles. They’re sad and they’re confused and then one week later in today’s Gospel, Jesus takes his inner circle, Peter, James and John, up to Mt. Tabor where Jesus is transfigured before them and where Moses and Elijah appear with him, Moses the greatest of all law givers, Elijah the greatest of all the prophets, they appear and they converse with him. In Luke’s account of the transfiguration we learn that this conversation concerned the upcoming journey to Jerusalem where Jesus would accomplish the purpose for which he was born into the human family. In a sense, Jesus has summoned Moses and Elijah, his inner circle James and John, in order to connect the dots if you will that all of salvation history is about to be fulfilled. The apostles still didn’t understand what rising meant then they heard, ‘This is my beloved son. Listen to Him.’ The sadness of Peter, James and John turns to joy. They don’t want to leave the mountain top. A short time later Jesus, the new Isaac, would carry the wood of the cross up Mt. Calvary. That same mount 2000 years earlier was known as Mt. Moriah. The only begotten son in obedience to his Father would offer his life for the salvation of the whole world past, present and future. Such is the history of salvation, but it does not end. It continues to this day with you and with me. We are a part of it. Jesus kept his promise to be with us until the end of the ages. He’s with us today at this Mass. He’s with us every Mass, the representation of his death on Calvary out of love for us. His promise is fulfilled in the Eucharist. God in his infinite mercy did not allow Abraham’s beloved son to be sacrificed yet God loved us so much that he did not withhold his only son to be tortured and to die an excruciating death for our redemption. As St. Paul so eloquently put it in our second reading, ‘If God who did not spare his only son is for us who can be against us?’ So this Lent in your prayers meditate on salvation history. Embrace it for we are living in a time when we are called to stand up for our faith in this godless world. We must be willing to truly sacrifice more than giving up chocolate or beer for Lent, no we are called to truly sacrifice to be like Isaac and to be like the new Isaac. So today as we approach the Eucharist, contemplate God’s deep and abiding love for us.”