REFLECTION: Second Sunday of Lent. Gen 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Rom 8:31b-34 and Mark 9:2-10
Bangalore (India), 02/28/2021, Sr. Anula Irvin Suguna.- The second Sunday of Lent presents another significant imagery for this time of conversion: the experience on a mountain. Both first reading and the Gospel events take place on the mountain top.
God said to Abraham, “Take your son Isaac, …go to the land of Moriah. offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Gen 22: 2). Abraham obeyed and took fire, wood and his only son and went to the place where God had told him to go (Gen 22:3). He was convinced that on the mountain of the Lord, God will provide. We could name this place as mountain of obedience and of faithfulness of God. “So, Abraham called the name of that place The LORD will provide...” (Gen22: 14). There is a reciprocal movement between God and Abraham: Abraham listens to God and goes to wherever God tells Him to go, on the other hand God fulfills His promise and spares His son Isaac. Abraham does not go alone anywhere as he wants, it was a journey of climbing the mountain with God and encountering Him on the top.
The Gospel invites us to focus on another one: Mount Tabor, the one of transfiguration: “after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves” (Mk 9: 2). Here Jesus leads the disciples to this high place where He will be transfigured. Transfiguration is the singular event in which Jesus appears radiant in glory, a prefiguration of His Resurrection.What type of a mountain is this? It is the mountain of peace, so Peter says, “Lord it’s good to be here” (Mk 9:5), this is where the disciples saw the glory of Jesus revealed, it is a place of prayer and passion as Moses and Elijah “who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Lk 9:31).
Mountain plays a very significant role in Jesus’ life as He often climbed up there to pray as it provides a quiet atmosphere, to be in solitude to commune with His Father (Mt 14:23, Mk 6:46, Lk 6:12, Jn 6:15). Many important events in the life of Jesus took place on mounts (temptation, Sermon on the Mount, prayer, agony, cross, resurrection and ascension). This is a sacred place of encounter of Jesus with His Father.
In this second Sunday of lent we are called to climb the mountain, not alone, but walking with God as Abraham and lead by Jesus as Peter, James and John.
There is a path of ascent and also a path of descent in the scene of transfiguration, “…as they were coming down the mountain…” (Mk 9: 9). Our spiritual journey involves ‘climbing up’ but also ‘coming down.’ Jesus Himself points us both upward and downward at the same time. He climbed along with His disciples and He taught us the path of descent by his very life of suffering and death on the cross. In our life journey the path of descent is more trust worthy if we consciously make this journey down to decenter ourselves from ourselves to God and to others.
This is an invitation for this lent to climb the mountain guided by God… Moriah, Tabor…. (any significant name) where we will encounter God.