Readings: Gen. 22:1-2, 9, 10-13, 15-18; Rom 8:31-34; Mk. 9:2-10
Be Quiet! Stop and Listen
1. A priest wanted to show his parishioners that they did not pay attention at Mass; that their responses was instinctive. After the procession and the veneration of the Altar, he made the sign of the Cross, tapped the microphone and said, “This microphone is faulty and must be repaired.” The congregation responded, “And with your Spirit”. On this second Sunday of Lent, we are invited to the mountain for prayer with Jesus, Peter, James and John. Elijah and Moses will be visiting soon. Here Jesus was transfigured, his clothes became dazzling white, and the Father’s voice was heard: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
2. Listening is an integral part of communication. But do we really listen to one another? It is easy to keep a virtual company and communicate with people through texts in smart phones, using Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, and what have you, than be engaged with someone in the same room. Often, we see family members at dinner table with everyone on the phone. How many times do you try to have a communication with someone while he/she is scrolling on the phone or video chatting with someone else? Do we listen to God when we pray? At times we are eager and intent on letting God know what we want and how we want it, rather than allow God talk to us too. We bring the same attitude to our everyday life with our friends. We often hear people say, “Be quiet and listen!” Or “Look at me when I’m talking to you.” Listening means being quiet, attentive, and thinking about what to say when we have to say something. We must talk not because we must but because we have something to say. St. James warns: “Everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak.” (James 1:19) So, today God tells us to be quiet and listen to his Son.
3. In the first reading we see that God’s covenant is continuously made manifest in the life of Abraham. His willingness to sacrifice his son provokes more blessings, even as it renews his previous promise “I will multiply you exceedingly…for I am making you the father of a host of nations. I will render you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings shall stem from you.” (Gen. 17:1-8). Abraham’s faith was unhindered by God’s demand, as painful as it was – the sacrifice of his only son. God asked him to “Take your son Isaac, your only son, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on the height that I will point out to you.” (Gen. 22:2). God knew the effect that this demand would have on Abraham. This was his only son, the son between him and Sarah, the child of their old age and the son of the promise. It was through Isaac that the promise to be the father of nations would be fulfilled. How could God make such a request of an old man. To show how much Abraham loved God, he was willing to sacrifice that which he loved the most.
4. Love calls for sacrifice. God’s love for us is sacrificial love: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16). “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn. 15:13). In the same vein, our love for God demands and requires the sacrifice of our love, our will, our heart and our being. How do we let go of that which we love and adore for the love of God? How do we give and continue to give all that we have and are because of our faith and trust in God? Abraham was willing to let go because he loved and trusted God that much. In my opinion, in his heart Abraham knew that God would not take away that which he loved without love in return for love. Abraham was not disappointed! Especially when he heard: “Abraham, Abraham! Do not lay your hand on the boy, 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.” (Gen. 22:12-14).
5. In the gospel we see God’s willingness to sacrifice his Son, his only Son whom he loved, the only Son of Mary, out of love for humanity. We heard him: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” (Mk.9:7). In the second reading Paul told us, “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 with him? Christ Jesus it is who died – or, rather, was raised – who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.” (Rom. 8:31-34). Humanly speaking it is hard, tedious, difficult and seemingly perilous, to let go and let God. Letting go without listening to Jesus, is to say the least, impossible. Hence the need to hush, be quiet and listen to Jesus as he leads us to greener pastures. God cannot enter into a noisy, environment. Therefore, Christ tells us, “When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your father who is in secret.” (Mt. 6:6).
6. Abraham went into the inner room of his heart to pray and to listen; he heard the Lord who made a serious request of him. He asked for the sacrifice of his Son. Jesus went up the mountain for a few days of prayer and solitude with his friends, and his death was confirmed and his mission to save the world by the shedding his blood was sealed. That is why “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.” (Mk. 9:9). On this second of Lent, what is the Lord telling you to do? If we do not learn to be quiet and listen in prayer, we may not hear the Lord. Yes, the Lord may ask you for something demanding and difficult, will you be willing to obey him? Prayer is not only giving God the list of what you want him to do for you; it is also an opportunity to listen to the Lord. The Lord wants to talk to you, to share your worries and joys. He has a mission for each and every one of us. There is a specific thing He wants only you to accomplish on his behalf, but you may have blocked him with too much noise. Let us be quiet and listen so that he may transform and transfigure us into the image of his Son. Amen.
Rev. Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP
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