First Reading
Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18

1. In Genesis 15:5 God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. It is to this promise that Abraham clings as he raises the knife to kill his son. Where do you fall on the continuum when blind trust is required of you, with 1 being low and 10 high?

2. Abraham discovers that God does not allow human sacrifice. How does human trafficking relate to human sacrifice? Would raising the minimum wage eradicate some kinds of human sacrifice?

Second Reading
Romans 8:31b-34

1. The Old Testament translates “Emmanuel” as God with us. This reading says God is not only with us, but for us. “Christ indeed intercedes for us.” Explain how this statement could be a real antidepressant.

2. How does intervening “for” someone, taking a stand for him or her, relate to the commandment, “love your neighbor?” For whom can you intervene? Do you ever do it?

Gospel
Mark 9:2-10

1. It took a blinding light for Peter, James and John to begin to see or understand who Jesus was. Think of some problems in your country that need illumination (such as racism, immigration, environment). What needs to happen in these areas before you would be able to see something divine in them

2. Pope Francis speaks about the Transfiguration. What does he say needs to happen when we climb the mountain? Or climb down from the mountain?

We need to go to a place of retreat, to climb the mountain and go to a place of silence, to find ourselves and better perceive the voice of the Lord. We cannot stay there, however. The encounter with God in prayer again pushes us to come down from the mountain and back down into the plain, where we meet many brothers and sisters weighed down by fatigue, injustice, and both material and spiritual poverty.

Pope Francis Angelus Second Sunday of Lent
March 16, 2014