Sunday 16th March 2025 2nd Sunday of Lent

The covenant that God made with Abraham, is the main subject of our first reading. This covenant is a covenant between unequal persons. Abraham on one hand and God on the other hand. God promise of lasting protection for Abraham and his generations, while Abraham part of the covenant is, only to trust and have faith in God. Abraham put his trust in God even when he remained a nomad and without a child. We are call to a life of faithfulness, hope, and trust in God’s divine love. For God always faithful.

Our existence in this world is a stage that leads to life everlasting, a heavenly life that God has prepared for us. Foods, materials, and worldly values, should not be our main objective in this life. Paul, in the second reading, admonished us that we must strive in spite of our human limitations and failures, to attain that everlasting life. The resurrection of Jesus attained through his passion and death, is our assurance. We should bear with patience and with sure hope the sufferings and pains that come our ways in this life, for they cannot be compare to the Glory that awaits us in heaven.   

Luke in the Gospel presented us once again with the image of the praying Jesus. Jesus with three of his Apostles, going to the mountain of transfiguration to pray. This is an example of the need for us to leave our familiar territories, to leave our comfort zone, as people or as a faith community to encounter God in prayer. Jesus told us in the Gospel that where two or three are gather in his name he is present in their mist. This was manifested in the appearance of the heavenly personages, when Jesus was at prayer with Peter, James and John. Moses and Elijah, who represent the laws and the Prophets of God, came to testify to the divine person of Jesus Christ as the fulfilment of both the Laws and the Prophets. Whenever we lead by the Holy Spirit to come together to worship God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are making present the heavenly host in our mist. In the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, the heavenly banquet is made present to us here on earth.   

Peter was so caught up in the joy of the divine presence of Moses and Elijah, that he forgot that there is no Glory without a Cross. We as Christians must not live in the illusion that a life of faith in Jesus Christ, is a life without pains, hardships and sacrifices. There are no roses without thorns. What God demands of us is trust, faith and Love. God in turn promises us an everlasting life. A life where all pains, sorrows, hardships and even death will exist no more. As we continue this Holy time of Grace, let us through our Lent sacrifices implore that Grace of God, to draw us closer to the needs of the people around us and to the divine love of God. 

Fr. Jerome Otitoyomi DUKIYA. C.S.Sp.