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Let the Scriptures Speak
2nd Sunday of Lent A
March 12, 2017
Dennis Hamm, SJ

All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.
(Gen 12:3)

If you are a member of one of the three Abrahamic religions—that is if you are a Jew, a Christian, or a Muslim—the call of Abram (later known as Abraham) has to be one of the most powerful episodes in the Bible. If, as a matter of fact, the story is not all that important to you, you need to re-read it in context, for what comes before and after makes a world of difference.

The people who put together the book of Genesis placed this first episode of the ancestral stories right after their eleven chapter resume of pre-Israelite human history. Thus, when we come to chapter 12, we have read the stories of creation followed by five accounts illustrating the human capacity to violate God's intentions for creation—the rebellion of Adam and Eve, Cain's murder of Abel, the arrogance that brings on the deluge, Ham's disrespect of his father Noah, and the building of the tower of Babel. The rest of the Bible will be the story of the Creator's strategy to rescue the human part of creation from its own foolishness, through a particular people, Israel, beginning with a particular man, Abram.

Careful commentators have noticed that the call of Abram is told in a way that very consciously reverses elements of the episode that came immediately before, the tower of Babel story. Whereas the ambitious people gathered on the plain of Shinar to build their city and tower say, “Let us ... make a great name for ourselves,” childless senior Abram is told by God, “I will make your name great.” And whereas the second goal of the builders of Babel is to prevent their being “scattered ... all over the earth,” Abram is told to abandon whatever security he had in Haran and to take the risk of going “to a land,” God says, “that I will show you.”

Those same careful commentators also note that the fivefold repetition of the word “bless” in this passage matches the fivefold use of “curse” in Genesis 1-11—another hint that whatbegins with Abram is God's strategy for undoing the damage of the whole prior history of human sinfulness.

The Transfiguration vision of this Sunday's Gospel is part of that same thread stretching back to Abram.
Just how all the communities of the earth will find blessing in Abram—this is what the rest of the Bible is about. Sometimes that universal blessing is expressed in prophecies about all the nations coming to find peace and enlightenment in Zion (for example, Isaiah 2). The author of Isaiah 40-55, the one we call Second Isaiah, envisions Israel becoming a blessing for the nations as the Servant of Yahweh who is a “light for the nations” (Isa 42:6; 49:6). The Christian is the one who carries out Israel's vocation and that he continues that work through his Church (see Luke's exposition of this theme in his Gospel and in Acts). And Paul writes to the Gentile Christians of Galatia that they too are heirs to the promises to Abraham, since Christ is the "seed of Abraham" par excellence and they have been incorporated into Christ.

Though it may not be obvious at first, the Transfiguration vision of this Sunday's Gospel is part of that same thread stretching back to Abram. Think of what it meant for three Jews—Peter, James and John—to experience this vision. First Jesus is transfigured in a manner that anticipates his resurrection. Then he is accompanied by Moses and Elijah, who care engaged in conversation with him. If any two figures symbolize the Law and the Prophets—in effect, God's revelation to Israel—they are Moses and Elijah; and they are treating Jesus as an equal, placing him in their prophetic line as mediators of God's word and covenant. The covenant allusion comes not only from the figure of Moses but also from the bright, overshadowing cloud, reminiscent of the forging of the covenant people at Mt. Sinai. Out of that cloud, a voice proclaims that Jesus is much more than the equal of Moses and Elijah: “This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests. Listen to him.”

This, of course, is the same voice heard at the baptism of Jesus, repeating the same message. As before, the message identifies Jesus as Messiah (alluding to “You are my son,” in Psalm 2:7) and  the Servant of Yahweh (“in whom I am well pleased” alluding to Isaiah 42:1). That Isaian text is the first Servant song which destines the Servant to be a "light to the nations" (Isa 42:6). When the three disciples fall to the ground in fear, and are reassured by Jesus, they look and see no one but Jesus. Thus Jesus, especially as risen Lord, is the final mediator of the promise to Abram, the one through whom the Creator means to bless all the communities of the earth.

Dennis Hamm, SJ
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Fr. Hamm is emeritus professor of the New Testament at Creighton University in Omaha. He has published articles in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, The Journal Of Biblical Literature, Biblica, The Journal for the Study of the New Testament, America, Church; and a number of encyclopedia entries, as well as the book, The Beatitudes in Context (Glazier, 1989), and three other books.
Art by Martin Erspamer, OSB
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C).
This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org
 
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