February 25, 2024; Second Sunday of Lent (Year B)

Readings: Gen. 22:1-2, 9, 10-13, 15-18; Rom 8:31-34; Mk. 9:2-10 

Be Quiet! Listen and learn.

1.     A priest wanted to show his parishioners that they did not pay attention at Mass and that their responses were automatic. After the sign of the Cross, he tapped the microphone and said, “This microphone is faulty and must be repaired.” The congregation responded, “And with your Spirit”. Today, we see Jesus, Peter, James, and John on the mountain of Transfiguration. Elijah and Moses will be visiting soon. On this mountain, 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. Do we really listen to one another? It is easier to communicate with people through texts on smartphones, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, and what have you than be engaged with someone in the same room. Often, we see families at the dinner table with everyone on the phone. How frequently do you try to communicate with someone, but the person is scrolling on the phone or video chatting with someone else? Do we even listen to God when we pray? We are often eager to let God know what we want and how we like it rather than allow God to 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). Today, God tells us to be quiet and listen to his Son.

3.     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 the 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. “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). Isaac was his only son between him and Sarah, the child of their old age and the son of the promise. 

4.     Love is sacrifice. God loves us sacrificially: “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 way, our love for God requires the sacrifice of our love, our will, our heart, and our being. How do we let go of what we love for our love for God? Abraham was willing to let go because he loved God that much. Abraham was not disappointed! 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. He told us, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” (Mk.9:7). In the second reading, Paul said, “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?” (Rom. 8:31-34). Yes, it is hard, challenging, and sometimes scary to let go and let God. Letting go without listening to Jesus is, to say the least, impossible. Hence, we must be quiet and listen to Jesus. God cannot enter 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 his heart’s inner room to pray and listen. He heard the Lord, who made an earnest request of him. Jesus went up the mountain for a few days of prayer with his friends, and his death was confirmed, and his mission to save the world by 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 Sunday of Lent, we must be quiet and listen when we pray. Yes, the Lord may ask you for something demanding and strenuous. Will you obey him? Prayer is not giving God the list of what we want. It is an opportunity to listen to the Lord. The Lord likes to talk to us, to share our worries and joys. He has a mission for 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