When I was a kid my family and I visited Mount Washington while we were on vacation in New Hampshire. It was a perfect day without a cloud in the sky. The view from the top of the mountain was incredible. We could see for hundreds of miles in all directions. There was something profound about being able to see so much laid out before you. I think there are moments in life where we can clearly see what lies before us and what is behind us.
Have you ever had a "mountain top" experience? Think about it... have you ever had the opportunity to see clearly where you have come from and where you are going? This type of clear vision really can only happen on the top of a mountain.
This is exactly what we see going on in the first reading (Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18) God asks Abraham to go to a mountain top that He has already prepared and chosen. God wants Abraham to see clearly what it is that God is doing in his life and He puts Abraham to the test. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his own beloved son.
For us today this is a monstrous image and a horrible thing that God would ask for. But notice that God clearly has a plan. God is not "making this up" as He goes. Abraham understands that God is asking him to sacrifice the one thing that he loves and treasures the most in the world. Abraham knows that the test that God is making him endure will not destroy him. It is on the top of the mountain where Abraham knows that he will see clearly the plan that God has for his life. Abraham obeys God because he knows that God is trustworthy and that God will care for him. Abraham knows and listens to God's command because he knows that God will provide. But Abraham also knows that God wants us to offer to him that thing that we treasure the most in the world.
It is on the mountain top where Abraham sees his past. He sees where he has come from. He sees how God has always been faithful to His promises. It is on the mountain top where Abraham sees where he is going, Abraham sees his future. It is on the mountain top where Abraham gives to God his future. Abraham offers his son Isaac, the promise of his future, to God.
Something very similar is going on in the Gospel reading from today (Mark 9:2-10). We see that Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up to a mountain top so that they can see clearly. Jesus wants them to finally understand. And So He is transfigured before them. It is there on the mountain top that they see Moses and Elijah. Peter, James, and John see clearly the past. They see the plan that God began long ago. The plan that was begun with Abraham and continued through Moses, the lawgiver, and Elijah the prophet. Peter, James, and John see clearly that Jesus is divine. They see and understand their future and where they are going.
But notice the difference between the mountain top experience of Abraham and the mountain top experience of Jesus, Peter, James, and John. God still asks for our obedience. God still asks us to trust Him. The voice clearly says to the apostles, "Listen to him!" We are still commanded to listen to Jesus. But there is one profound difference.
Notice that God asked Abraham to offer his own beloved son... now God offers to us His own beloved Son. God asked Abraham to give to Him the one thing that Abraham loved the most. Now God gives to us the one thing that He loves the most. God gives us His son, Jesus!
St. Paul is absolutely correct, as we hear in our second reading, (Romans 8:31b-34) "If God is for us who can be against us?" We know that life is not without its tests, trials, difficulties, and moments of incredible suffering. Yet we can be certain that God is for us. We can be certain that God will care for us. We can be certain that God loves us because he has given us his beloved son, Jesus.
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