By Fr. Ed Liptak, SDB –

God’s dated relationship with Moses in about 1280 BC enabled him to go back in Genesis another 200 years to the times of Abram. This Second Sunday of Lent then, we return nearly 3250 years to trace the founding of the Old Testament or Contract of God with humankind, the basis of our revealed religion.

Abram had obeyed God, left his home, and traveled south to Palestine. God spoke to him and promised him land and descendants as numerous as stars. The Virgin Mary recalled that in her Magnificat. To seal God’s pledge to Abram a sacrifice was needed. God told Abram to arrange the offering and gave the sign that it was accepted. Thus, the Old Testament was sealed. For the New, God sent the promised Savior to open the Kingdom and sealed the contract with the sacrificial blood of His Son, Jesus.

St. Paul, an imitator of Christ, opened his heart to beg the Philippians by imitating him to ensure their salvation. He had claimed that whatever he taught, he did so after speaking with Christ. Paul wept for those who would not hear and lamented their destruction. Paul taught what Jesus did about the inhabitants of heaven and hell. If Jesus spoke, so it would be, “But our citizenship is in heaven,” he pleaded; not only our souls but our bodies too are created to share the wondrous glory of Jesus’ resurrected body.

The Transfiguration revealed the full nature of Jesus. It also asserted how God entered the acting out of His plan. It was just before Jesus departed for Jerusalem where all He promised would occur. He died, was buried, and rose again. He offered Himself on behalf of the weaknesses and sins of human nature. His sacrifice did indeed seal a New Covenant. Peter, James, and John, to face that awful horror, must be fortified. Not only did they see Jesus in heaven’s glory, but from the shadow of the cloud above them the voice of the Father resounded, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

In St. Paul, you and I have a marvelous, consecrated ambassador of Jesus, our Savior:

“Therefore, my brothers and sisters,
whom I love and long for, my joy and crown,
in this way stand firm in the Lord, beloved”