When Jesus took Peter, James, and John to the top of Mount Tabor, he revealed himself as the Son of God to them. His disciples knew all about Jesus’ humanity. They knew how he walked, they knew what he ate, and they even knew his mannerisms. They would have known him in his humanity. Yet, we know that Jesus is not just a man. Jesus is the son of God and He wanted to let Peter, James, and John know that He has a divine origin; that He is God. I think that its quite funny what St. Peter said. He wanted to spend more time on the mountain and so he said, let’s build three tents here.” I for one am amazed that he was able to say anything at all. I would have been speechless.

Anyhow, a cloud overshadowed them. The disciples would have known instantly what the cloud represented. It meant that God was with them. In Exodus we read the following. “Lo, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.” (Ex 19:9) The cloud indeed was a clear indication that God was with them on that mountain and would be forever with them. God shows that through Jesus, He is with his people.

Let’s hold this thought for a moment and look at the old testament reading. This first reading has caused so much thought in the Church. Its the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. To understand why this was a difficult scripture, we need to understand the importance of Isaac to Abraham. Abraham and Sarah were old, well beyond child bearing years. God blessed Abraham and Sarah and gave them a child. The child was seen as life’s greatest blessing and especially in this case where the womb that was barren had come back to life. Isaac was seen not only as a great blessing, but God attached a covenant to Isaac. God’s promise was that through Isaac all people would know God from generation to generation. It is through Isaac’s descendants that eventually Jesus Christ would come. Isaac represents the promise of God to be with all humanity for eternity. Isaac is the greatest of blessings for Abraham.

So, all of a sudden we see this scripture verse in today’s reading. The God said, ‘take your son Isaac, your only one,whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust.” God was telling Abraham that he needed to sacrifice his Son. God was telling Abraham that he needed to kill his son, Isaac. What is this? This is absurd. How could God ask Abraham to destroy the blessing of His promise. You can see how this would cause so much struggle to understand. Over the years the Church has tried to understand this radical reality - that God would ask Abraham to sacrifice his promised blessing. One of the most thorough works covering the scripture verse was completed by Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard wrote a book called, “Fear and Trembling” in which he analyzes the different aspects of this difficult scriptural passage.

If we think this difficult offering of the promised one is not applicable today, then we haven’t looked around enough. Most if not all mothers who know the blessing of conceiving and carrying a child in their womb know the pain and hurt of a miscarriage after 1, 3, or 6 months. They cry out. Why God? How could you be asking me to sacrifice the very blessing that you have given me. Abraham must have had the same thought. How could you God?

At a previous church, I knew a family who had a 13 year old boy. The boy was born under what was considered almost miraculous conditions. Because of this, he was cared for deeply by his parents. He was in scouts and his dad was active with him as a scout leader. One day they went on a scout trip where they were motor-boating. The boy was being pulled behind on a tub and had fallen off, when the boat turned around they didnt see him as they ran over him slicing him open with the propeller. The dad was on the boat and on the care flight over to the hospital. Some of the last words the boy said was, “Dad, how could you allow this to happen?” His Dad knows what it was for a blessing to be taken away in His son and has wrestled with this. Indeed we all have a hard time with this reality because it happens over and over again.

We need to look at the faith of Abraham in which we can see a supernatural faith. Abraham believed that God would both provide the sacrifice and that Isaac would be the father of generations of people. For us here and now when we have such difficult situations, we have faith to believe that God will make good out of the situation. In fact that is what God does. However the message of today is much more than realizing good will come out of the sacrificed blessing. We need to look at the Gospel again to see this.

In the Gospel, we hear a voice that came from the cloud and spoke to Peter, James, and John which said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.” Remember that the cloud was a pledge that God would be with his people and that with Jesus there it showed us that God pledged that Jesus would always be with us as well. Then it said for us to listen to His Son. The Son, Jesus Christ, constantly spoke to us about how he would die at the hands of the Pharisees and would rise from the dead. He said in the temple that they would destroy the temple and in three days would rise again. He consistently spoke that he would enter into suffering and eventually death.

For us, this gives us hope as we grieve the loss of a blessing. Jesus is there. He has walked there and knows what is in our heart. This is the blessing of God. He will always be with us and walks with us in the good times and in the bad times. He enters our sufferings making good from them but more importantly standing in solidarity with us in the midst of them. This is what our readings today is truly about. This is what this season of lent ultimately is about and it is what we do on the altar at every Mass.