Mountaintop Experiences - 2nd Sunday in Lent 2021

Genesis 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18;
Psalm 116;
Romans 8:31-34;
Mark 9:2-10

That phrase usually refers to “peak” spiritual experiences or those dramatic, critical moments in one’s life. Today we hear about two different mountaintop experiences. Abraham is called to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah and we also hear about the Transfiguration of Jesus on a high mountain. Both accounts pre-figure and point to another mount – Golgotha, Calvary, the Place of the Skull – where Jesus would accomplish his final Passover.

GENESIS

Abraham had waited 25 years for God to fulfill his promise and send a son to him and Sarah. Then, as a test, God told him to sacrifice Isaac on the altar. The Genesis account relates that Isaac himself carried the wood up the mountain of sacrifice. When Isaac asked about a sheep for the holocaust, Abraham replied, “God will provide.” And God did.

The Lord stopped Abraham just before he sacrificed his son. In Abraham’s heart, however, the sacrifice was already made…he was ready to obey God. Through his faith and obedience, Abraham had passed the test and brought abundant blessings upon himself and his descendants – “all this because you obeyed my commands.”

GOSPEL

The traditional location of the Transfiguration is Mount Tabor, in lower Galilee about 10 miles from Nazareth. It’s called a “high mountain” and indeed seems very high, especially when one is taking a shuttle bus up its narrow, winding roads – something Jesus and the apostles didn’t do!

Jesus was transfigured and appeared in a brilliance prefiguring his resurrected glory. Moses and Elijah appeared with him, representing the Law and the Prophets. The voice of the Father said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” This is similar to the words of the Father at Jesus’ baptism. This time, however, the Father added, “Listen to him.” I have often speculated as to why the Father added those words at this point in Jesus’ ministry. Perhaps because the people were not, in fact,  listening to him!

ROMANS

I have to confess that this particular reading from Romans 8 is a great personal favorite of mine. It was the second reading at our wedding Mass over 47 years ago. It is a powerful, hope-filled, proclamation of God’s love and care for us, overwhelming all obstacles that would come against us.

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” This verse reminds me of a time when our car was stuck in the mud out in the country. Our three-year-old son kept singing the St. Louis Jesuits’ version of this very passage. I’m not sure how much I appreciated it at that very moment, but it is an encouraging verse!

“It is God who acquits us, who will condemn?” Saints have expressed it this way, “He who will judge me is also my Savior, who died for me.” A comforting thought indeed!

WHICH MOUNTAIN ARE YOU ON?

Are you on Mount Moriah, the mount of sacrifice, where God is asking you to offer something precious to you, as Abraham was asked to do? Or are you on Mount Tabor, the mount of Transfiguration, basking in the glory of the Lord? Mount Moriah is a prefiguring of Mount Calvary – but this time God did not stop the bloody sacrifice from taking place.

Mount Tabor prefigures the resurrection, wherein Jesus was bathed in the Father’s glory. Our Lenten journey reminds us that mountains are necessary. Death must precede resurrection. “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

(Luke 24:26). The lesson of Lent is simply the lesson of the Christian life – we must die with the Lord in order to live with the Lord in glory (cf. 2 Tim. 2:11).