Homily (2) 2nd
Sunday Lent Year B: Fr. Michael Udoekpo
Readings: Gen 22:1-2, 9a,
10-13, 15-18; Ps 116:10, 15,16-19; Rom 8:31b-34 and Mark 9:2-10
Offering It Up To
the Lord!
Lent is one of those intense liturgical times. It is a kind
of a great retreat. A time of prayer and penance, when we are called to offer
ourselves to the Lord: our personal feelings,
our freedom, what we love, our ears and hands, our bodies, our families, jobs, our opinions, our
illnesses, sufferings, pains of the loss of a loved one, fears, joys, faith, hope, and treasures to the Lord!
All these are communicated in today’s Bible Lessons,
beginning with the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son, Isaac to the Lord!.
Abraham is a righteous man, a saddiq,
because, he listened, he obeyed, he left everything in Ur and embarked on a
journey of faith. Faith in the Lord was Abraham’s GPS (Gen 12ff). His journey
was marked temptations such as; conflicts with Lots, his Nephew; with Abimelech
over Sarah, above all the barrenness of Sarah.
When the only child, Isaac finally came, Abraham, in the
first reading is, asked to offer Isaac to the Lord (Gen 22). Abraham did not “spare
his son.” He offers not only his son readily and willingly, but his listening and obedient
services to the Lord, at the land of Moriah. Abraham and his descendants are
blessed with many gifts, for not withholding Isaac, his beloved son from the
Lord, foreshadowing God’s gifts of his Son, Jesus Christ, to us.
Saint Paul stresses this mystery of God’s teaching gifts
and offering of himself to us through Christ, in the Roman Church, to whom he ministered.
Paul says, “Brothers and sisters, 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 along with
him?”(Rom 8:31b-34).
Christ’s healing, loving and forgiving mystery up to the
Cross is God’s offering and ultimate sacrifice for us. Prior to this Cross, is
the Tabor experience of Christ’s transfiguration and prediction to his
disciples, Peter, James and John (Mark 9:2-10). With the dazzling cloth and glorious face of
Jesus, the disciples would want three tent to be built Israel’s great prophets,
Elijah, Moses and Jesus. Like in the case of Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice
Isaac, Peter’s proposal is met with a voice from heaven, “this is my beloved
son listen to him” (Mk 9:7b, Matt 17:5).
Lent is a time self-emptying. It is a time of listening
to the New Moses more closely, in the Word, Scripture Readings and through the
Sacraments. It is a time of sacrifice and offering up our senses, our
treasures, our illness, talents, joys, fears, hope and sorrows! Making sacrifices
also involves, participating in acts of evangelization, parish ministries, for
the sanctification and salvation of others. It involves forming somebody we are
responsible for, our children and grandchildren, our students; seeing the need
to forgive generously and promptly; feeling forgiven and loved by God and our neighbors!
Sacrifices and offerings can also be expressed concretely
in charitable works, in improvement of attitude and conduct, in taking side
with God and promoting issues of social justice. Thus, we are invited during
lent, to imitate Abraham, Paul, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and our Mother Mary in
searching for those Lenten opportunities, in our everyday life, during which we
can offer ourselves, time, and talents generously to God, through our
neighbors, around us!
