HOMILY: 2ND SUNDAY OF LENT, YEAR B
BY: Rev Fr Stephen ‘Dayo Osinkoya
Genesis 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18
Psalm 116:10, 15-19
Romans 8:31-34
Mark 9:2-10
Our first reading today in a way prefigures the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. So the connection between Isaac and Jesus is obvious. Isaac prefigured Our Lord in that he was to be sacrificed on a hill, and he carried on his shoulder the wood for the intended sacrifice. But there the likeness ends. He was not sacrificed at the end, but Jesus was.
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Let me ask, what is that Isaac in your life that you do not just want to let go in your life? There are so many Isaacs in our lives, so beloved and precious to us like Isaac was to Abraham. But our liturgy today is calling us to identify them in this season of lent and sacrifice them, if we must come to enjoy the promises made us by God.
Lent is a transformational season in the Church. This is, of course, why in the Gospel we hear the story of the Transfiguration read to us today. Abraham’s reward was a great one for his faithfulness. This “handing over” of our lives to God, this ability to trust that God will make all things right in the end is one of the things that we need to cultivate in our repentance this Lent.
Today there is a call on all of us to give up our Isaacs so that we can receive something more valuable from God. In fact our Isaacs lie between us and our blessings. Often we have many Isaacs blocking our blessings. There are so many of them coming in various forms. We have some Isaacs in form of fashion, material possession, technology, selfish desires and a good number of others. If to us there is such thing so beloved and precious, that it constitutes a hindrance to our blessings from God, then we should ask ourselves what is the importance of such Isaac in our life. This is because, in the case of Abraham, Isaac his only legitimate, beloved son was a blessing to his old age, his heir. Isaac was Abraham’s biological precondition for his descendants, the future generations, the promised blessing from God. Yet he was ready and willing to hand him over to God in burnt offering, in faithfulness to God.
Beloved in Christ, on this second Sunday of lent, the word of God invites us to search our lives and identify those vices; lies, hatred, anger, malice, envy, pride, excessive alcohol, fornication, adultery, fraud, and the many others, that have become our second nature, so beloved and precious to us, yet of no benefit to our spiritual growth and salvation. Having identified them, God is asking us to submit them at the feet of His only precious son, our Lord Jesus Christ and receive abundance of blessing, favour, protection, progress and ultimately, eternal salvation in return. Hence, St. Paul says to the Romans “He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?” (Rom. 8:32). God is willing and ready to give us what those Isaacs in our lives cannot afford us.
Therefore, the event of the transfiguration presented to us in the Gospel, on this second week of lent, is meant to strengthen our faith; that the promises of God hold true for us. On this mountain, Jesus revealed before his closest disciples the transcendent Truth of his identity and what each one of us would become in him, if we could keep faith in him and surrender to him those ‘Isaacs’ in our lives. Handing over our vices is an opportunity this Lenten season is offering us.
Beloved in Christ, God in his generosity offers us His only Son as the sacrifice for our salvation. In response to this act of generosity, we are called to be generous enough to surrender our vices in this Lenten season and then be sure to receive the blessings of Abraham. Let us therefore, open our hearts to be transformed by Christ.
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