2 nd Sunday of Lent - B

The warm weather we have had over the past few days has given us a glimpse of Spring, but probably most of us would have to admit that it is likely we still have a few cold days left before Spring finally arrives for good.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to the top of a high mountain to give them a glimpse of the glory that would be His after His resurrection from the dead, but He knew that he would have to endure suffering and death before He would experience the fullness of that glory forever.

There is often a glimpse of the good things the future holds for us that is followed by more waiting, and even sometimes suffering, before we experience the fullness of the gift God has planned to share with each of us.

Isn't even the way we come into the world an example of this? News of a pregnancy is usually greeted with joy and hope, but often followed immediately with some fear or anxiety, and certainly with a time of waiting and then pain when the moment of delivery arrives, but in the end, a new person is born into the world, and we pray received with an even greater joy than the first news of the pregnancy itself.

This is the story of our lives as Christians. In Baptism we are blessed with the gift of knowing that our sins are forgiven, we are given a share in the very life of God, and we are promised the hope of everlasting life. But between the time of our Baptism and our rising to eternal life, we have an entire lifetime filled with waiting, at times with struggles and challenges and pains and heartaches -- and glimpses of eternity as well. And then we must die before we inherit the fullness of life in heaven.

If we are going to make any sense of the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, it has to be in this context as well. God promised Abraham the gift of land and descendents. But before this promised was fulfilled, God put Abraham to the test. Without knowing how God was going both to fulfill His promise, and require the sacrifice of his son, Abraham endured the suffering of knowing his son might be slaughtered. But in the end, God rewarded Abraham with the legacy of becoming not only the father of the twelve tribes of Israel , but also the father in faith of the Christian and Muslim people as well.

For us today, these scriptures remind us that life includes both testing and pain as well as glimpses of the glory that awaits us in heaven. Some among us certainly experience life more often as a time of testing and pain, while others cruise through life as if it is plain as day that the Kingdom of God is indeed at hand. Most of us, however, are probably somewhere in the middle.

Perhaps the soundest advice we can follow is to remember when times are tough the moments of consolation we have had when we have known God's presence in our lives in great ways, and when we are on Cloud Nine, it might help to stay grounded by remembering those times when we ourselves have struggled and survived only by the grace of God.

As we reflect on the image of the T ransfiguration on this second Sunday in Lent, may this mystery in the life of Christ remind us that there is always some suffering that remains before we experience the fullness of the glory of God, but in moments of struggle and suffering, the hope of unfading glory and our glimpses of the glory we see already can surely be our great source of peace and strength.

Thomas P. Ferguson
March 12, 2006