The Second Sunday of Lent – February 25, 2024
In the Sunday Lectionary, the first reading is meant to complement the Gospel pericope. Why then is the Transfiguration paired with the testing of Abraham? Both are “terrifying” in different ways. One reveals God’s awe-full glory in Jesus; the other, God’s inexplicably dreadful demand. Beyond that, they seem to have little in common. On closer look, if we read the omitted verses from Genesis, we see the connection, which is God’s love for us in Christ.
Abraham saddles his donkey and takes his son Isaac on a three-day journey to a destination set out by God—Moriah, the Lord’s mountain and where Solomon will build the Temple. We see foreshadowings of Jesus’s own journey to Jerusalem where he is put to death.
Why is the Transfiguration paired with the testing of Abraham? Both are “terrifying” in different ways.
Saint Augustine will note that “just as the Lord carried his cross, so Isaac himself carried to the place of sacrifice the wood on which he too was to be placed” (Concerning the City of God against the Pagans, trans.)
Henry Bettenson, p. 694). Upon that wood, Abraham will lay Isaac, his only son, just as God gave us his beloved Son to lay his life upon the cross. And in Abraham’s threefold reply, we hear echoes of the Father, who, in Jesus, says to us, “Here I am,” so that reason may give way to faith in love unbound by reason itself.
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