Second Sunday of Lent, Year B
First Reading: Gn 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18
Second Reading: Rom 8:31b-35, 37
Gospel Reading: Mk 9:2-10
In this Sunday’s First Reading, we hear how “God tested Abraham” by asking him to kill his only son, thus (apparently) breaking his promise to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars.
(God was not asking Abraham for anything he himself would not give, for, as we hear in the Second Reading, he himself “did not withhold his own son, but gave him up for all of us.”)
Abraham had actually picked up the knife and raised it to kill Isaac before God stopped him. “Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me,” he said.
Surely God, who knows even what we call the future, knew that Abraham would give him his son. But if so, why did he wait until the last minute before stopping him?
The answer is that God knew, but Abraham did not.
Submission to God is, first of all, a mental act, like the intention we express every day in the Morning Offering. However, mental acts can be social or solitary.
For example, the mental acts of seeing, remembering, and reasoning are solitary acts, because we can perform them without the intervention of any other intelligent being. In contrast, the mental acts of making a promise or entering into a contract are social acts, because they cannot exist without the intervention of some other intelligent being, who acts a part in them.
Now if a mental act is solitary, it need not be expressed in words or by any other observable sign; it may exist, and be complete, even without being known to any other person. However, if it is social, it cannot exist without being expressed in word or sign to the other party.
In fact, the word or sign is necessary to make the act known not only to the other party, but even to the first party. “We can hardly be confident of the state of our own minds, but as it stands attested by some external action,” said Samuel Johnson; “we are seldom sure that we sincerely meant [to do] what we [in fact] omitted to do.”
God asked Abraham to give him his son Isaac in what God intended to be a mental act, but he let him reach the very brink of killing his son before he intervened. “I know now how devoted you are to God,” he said, but only now could Abraham know it, too.
During Lent, the Church invites us to submit to God in action, not just in thought, word, or intention.
For example, we say we are ready to give up something for love of God; the Church asks us intentionally to give up food and money, in what she calls “fasting and almsgiving.” We say we are ready to admit our guilt, humbly beg God’s forgiveness, and amend our lives; the Church asks us actually to go to confession and do penance.
Only in this sacrament can the Church make sure that we are conscious of our guilt, sorry for our sins, resolved not to sin again, and willing to make amends for the harm we have done. However, only in this sacrament can we ourselves be sure.
During Lent, take the challenge.
Do you recognize God as your Lord? Are you willing to submit to him? Then do it: fast and give alms.
Do you admit that your sins – what you have done and what you have failed to do through your own fault – have brought grief upon the world? Then do it: go to confession.
Christ set the example. “The law and the prophets” (represented by Moses and Elijah) had spoken of the Messiah’s suffering; now, in a few weeks, Christ would enact it.
But first, as we hear in the Preface, he wanted to reassure his apostles that his Passion would “lead to the glory of the Resurrection.”
Father Hawkswell is again teaching “The Catholic Faith in Plain English.” All the materials (video and print) are available online free of charge at beholdvancouver.org/catholic-faith-course. Session 24, “The First Three Commandments,” will be available Feb. 28.