How Devoted

March 4, 2012

Second Sunday of Lent B

By Rev Joe McCloskey, SJ

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." Genesis 22:10-12

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? Romans 8:31b-32

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. Matthew 9:2-3

Piety

Our piety is the response we make to God’s so great love that he gave us in his Son to die for us. If God could love us so much that he would allow his Son to make up for the evil we have done by his dying for us, what would God not do for us if we but ask? Our piety is the response we make to such an incredibly loving God. We join ourselves by our piety to the dying of Christ. Christ gives us by our Baptism into his dying the deepest core of our being. It is not just that we are created in the image and likeness of Christ by birth. We are also born again into the life of Christ by our Baptisms. Christ gives us our sonship and daughtership of God by the rebirth that takes place by Baptism. Piety pushes us out of selfishness by our willingness to love one another even as Christ has loved us by giving up his life for us.

Study

As we study the Transfiguration of Christ we have a powerful vision of what life is worth. The transfiguration of Christ is the foretaste of the Resurrection. No one can accuse us before the throne of God if we have accepted Christ’s gift of his life for us. We become his life for each other in the sacrifices we are willing to make for each other. The challenge of the Resurrection is seen in all the ways we offer our lives for each other. The invitation of Christ is to love one another as he has loved us. We know with the certainty of Christ’s love for us that there is no grater love than to give our lives for each other.

Action

Our good actions for each other transform our lives. Each good act flows out of the love that makes us one with God in Christ. He gives us the motivational force to go out of our way to meet the needs of one another. Prayer, fasting and good works are the material of the gift of our lives for another. The sacrifices we make for Lent might seem to our world as good diet choices, but they are so much more in preaching the kingdom of God born in acting out our lives as the truth of the Mystical Body of Christ. The words of St. Francis come alive in our preaching by our lives rather than by mere words. Giving up something that we really like for Lent tells our bodies how important Christ is to us. It does the same for our world when we know we are one with each other in Christ. Goodness brings the glow of the Transfiguration into our lives. Loving one another as Christ loves us is the beginning of heaven here on Earth.