Two-Minute Homily by Fr Adrian Sharp for the Second Sunday of Lent 2024. “At the beginning of Lent, let’s heed the call to look at our lives in a new way. And may this Lent purify us, and help us become more totally the Lord’s, and more fully united with Him.”
- Two-Minute Homily Transcript
Two-Minute Homily Transcript
Author: Archdiocese of Brisbane
The readings today take us up three mountains, Abraham and Isaac on Mt Moriah; the sacrifice of the Son of God on Mt Calvary; and then the experience of the Transfiguration on Mt Tabor. Whenever you climb a mountain, you see things differently, and from a different perspective; and the three mountains of today’s readings invite us to see life differently.The first reading seems very strange to our ears. But Abraham belonged to the Chaldean people, and in those times they thought it was perfectly acceptable to offer their children to their gods in the way that Abraham was going to do. But God called Abraham to leave the Chaldean people and to go to a place that He would show him. So, on Mt Moriah, God showed Abraham to leave the ways of the Chaldeans behind, and to offer sacrifice to the true God in a new way.
We can be as immersed in the culture of our day as Abraham was in his. And we need to be shown a new way. There are many false gods in our culture entertainment, appearances, money and pleasure, power and control, the idea that we can do whatever we like so long as we think we’re not hurting anyone. Like Abraham, God calls us to discover again our fidelity to the one true God and to serve Him alone.
In the second reading, on Mount Calvary, where Our Lord died on the Cross for us, we are invited to see that it is a person who saves us, redeems us, forgives us and leads us home to God. God is a personal God, made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. The invitation to climb Mount Calvary is an invitation to embrace the life, death and resurrection of Our Lord through which we are saved and made free. Not by efforts of our own, but by his free gift which he offers to us.
And then, in the Gospel, the invitation to climb Mount Tabor is an invitation to look into heaven, and to realise that what we see around us here on earth is not the end of the story. We’re not made just for this we are made to share the life of the Blessed Trinity, a life that is total love, joy, and freedom to be what we were created to be. This glimpse of heaven would help the disciples to keep their eyes on their destination, even when days would be dark and confusing.
And so, at the beginning of Lent, let’s heed the call to look at our lives in a new way. And may this Lent purify us, and help us become more totally the Lord’s, and more fully united with Him.