“Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love … [and] offer him up as a holocaust.” These are shocking words to us; we can’t imagine anything so barbaric. But, they would not necessarily have been so for Abraham. Child sacrifice was an accepted practice in Abraham’s time among the pagan religions; even some of the Jewish kings practiced it. But our God does not desire human sacrifice. So, as we hear with great relief in today’s first reading, God stops him! God was putting Abraham to the test, and for his complete trust in God and obedience to God’s command, Abraham became the father of a great nation, through whom all the nations of the earth find blessing, even today.
Jesus is a descendant of Abraham and it’s easy to see the parallels between Jesus and this episode that we hear in today’s first reading. Abraham acted in complete obedience to God’s will just as Jesus acted in complete obedience to his heavenly Father’s will. Isaac, the beloved son of Abraham, carried the wood to be used for the sacrifice just as Jesus, God’s beloved Son, carried his cross. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his beloved son for God. God did sacrifice his Son for us. And, because of his faithfulness and obedience, Abraham became the father of a host of nations. Jesus, in turn, became the redeemer of all nations.
God’s sacrifice of his Son for us is at the heart of Saint Paul’s message to the Romans that we hear today. “If God is for us,” he says, “who can be against us?” God loves us, and this love was made known so clearly when he did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all. So, we have reason to hope, since Jesus, the risen Lord, continues to intercede for us.
The goal of our hope is brought to light in today’s Gospel account of the transfiguration of Jesus. Accompanied by three of his disciples, Jesus goes up a mountain. While they are there, Jesus is transfigured before them. Then Moses and Elijah – representing the Law and the Prophets – appear, conversing with Jesus. Overshadowed by a cloud, the disciples hear a heavenly voice command, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” This is the same command God issued at Jesus’ baptism and we all do well to heed it, to listen to Jesus.
The transfiguration of Jesus revealed his divine nature and manifested the glory he had always possessed, and would return to upon leaving his earthly human body at his Resurrection. It was also a prefiguring of the glory we all hope to attain one day in our resurrected bodies. If we live and die with Christ – if we do in fact listen to him as he intercedes for us – then we shall take our place among our ancestors in the faith, as Jesus showed on that mountain. Let that be our hope as we continue our Lenten journey, preparing to join Jesus on the cross so that we can all join him in eternal glory!