Second Sunday of Lent
Every Sunday in this space we’ll offer a chance to dive a little deeper with Scripture and the Open Wide Our Hearts (OWOH) pastoral letter, with reflections by Fr. James Downey.
In this weekend’s first reading, we witness God’s promise to Abraham that, because of his Faith, in his descendants, “all the nations of the earth shall find blessing.” In the second reading and the gospel, we see that promise fulfilled: in Jesus Christ, the descendant of Abraham, the gates of heaven have been opened to the whole world.
In particular, the fulfillment of the promise is revealed in that people of every race and nation have themselves become inheritors of the divine blessing through Baptism in Christ. In the Sacrament of Baptism, we are declared and truly made God’s children; a people chosen by God to share in a covenant with Him, not because of our merit, but because of His love.
It is through this covenant, through His Church, His children, and His people, that this blessing and salvation might not only be opened to all, but received by all. But as part of the covenant, just as with the covenant with Abraham, demands will be made of us. God demanded Abraham to trust Him so much as to be willing to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, through whom God had promised to raise up his descendants. On Tabor, God demanded of the apostles, Peter, James, and John, to recognize Jesus as the beloved Son of God and to listen to Him. It was through their fidelity to God’s commands that He brought about and brings about His salvation.
What about us? We already experience some fruit of God’s salvation through the “New and Eternal Covenant” and the Sacraments, but what demands are made of us and what greater fidelity is God calling us to?
Perhaps it is the willingness to offer as a sacrifice to God some deeply-felt or long-held opinions and preconceptions, just as Abraham was called to sacrifice Isaac. Perhaps it is to better listen to and follow more fully God’s beloved Son and His Bride, the Church. Whatever may be demanded, we can respond readily and without fear, because we know that, as Paul says in the second reading, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
What is certain is that, as inheritors of the covenant, we must respond to God’s call not only for our sakes, but for the sake of those to whom we are meant to be witnesses and messengers. When we fail to be faithful to God’s covenant with us, we also fail as witnesses, which means it is more than just our souls on the line. When a man with no life in God sins against his neighbor, it is a tragedy, but it hardly counters or discredits the message of God’s love and salvation.
However, when a Christian sins against their neighbor, when one who professes belief in God and love of God and has come to His Altar and received the gift of His Love in the Eucharist then turns and fails to love their neighbor, it says to the world that God’s grace is without power to change and save the hearts of men.
Of course, those who know God and His grace will know that this message is not true, but the ones who do not know God or the wondrous effects of His grace in the life of man will only see another Christian hypocrite and see no reason to seek the salvation of God. This is why “racism,” and any sins against the Love of Neighbor, “[have] no place in the Christian Heart” (OWOH, p.6).
“If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
Families:
Pick one reading from this weekend (available here) and read through it together (before or after Mass)
Ask your children if they have any vocabulary questions. If there is a place name mentioned consider looking it up on a map (google maps is great!) and ask older children to briefly re-tell the story to see if they understood the basics of the message/reading.
Fidelity =loyalty or constancy in allegiance to God or the things of God
Say: During Lent we seek to change our lives for the better, looking for ways in which we can be more faithful to Jesus. But we might also identify those aspects of our lives that we want to affirm and to continue. We want to recommit ourselves to the good things in our lives, for example, prayer and service to others, particularly this Lent through education on struggles some of our brothers and sisters have because of the color of their skin or where they were born. In our prayer today, let’s each try to identify one thing in our life that we should be affirming during Lent and one thing that God might affirm in our lives.