Listen to Him!

Second Sunday of Lent

It-Tieni  Ħadd tar-Randan

Messalin B  pp 148

Reading 1                         GeNesis 22:1-2, 9A, 10-13, 15-18

God put Abraham to the test. He called to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” he replied. Then 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  on a height that I will point out to you.” When they came to the place of which God had told him,  Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the LORD’s messenger called to him from heaven,  “Abraham, Abraham!” “Here I am!” he answered. “Do not lay your hand on the boy,” said the messenger. “Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God,  since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.” As Abraham looked about,  he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he went and took the ram  and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son. Again the LORD’s messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:  “I swear by myself, declares the LORD,  that because you acted as you did  in not withholding from me your beloved son,  I will bless you abundantly  and make your descendants as countless  as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore;  your descendants shall take possession  of the gates of their enemies,  and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing— all this because you obeyed my command.” .  This is the Word of the Lord.

L-Ewwel Lezzjoni   -   mill-Ktieb tal-Ġenesi 22.1-2.9a.10.13,15-19

F'dak iż-żmien, Alla ried iġarrab lil Abraħam u qallu: "Abraħam!"  U hu wieġbu:  "Hawn jien!"  U qallu: "Aqbad lil Ibnek il-waħdieni, li int tħobb, lil Iżakk; u mur lejn l-art ta' Morija, u hemm offreh b'sagrifiċċju tal-ħruq fuq waħda  mill-għoljiet li jien se ngħidlek." U waslu fil-post li kien semmielu Alla.   U Abraham medd idu u qabad is-sikkina biex joqtol lil ibnu.   U sejjaħlu l-anġlu tal-Mulej mis-smewwiet u qallu: "Abraħam, Abraħam!"  U dan wieġbu: "Hawn jien." U qallu:  "La tmiddx idek fuq iż-żgħażugħ u tagħmillu ebda  ħsara; għax issa naf li inti tibża' minn Alla, u ma ċaħħadadtnix minnibnek il-waħdieni." U Abraħam rafa' għajnejh, ta ħarsa madwaru, u ra muntun  warajh maqbud minn qrunu fil-friegħi.   U Abraħam mar u  qabad il-muntun, u offrieh b'sagrifiċċju tal-ħruq minflok ibnu. U għat-tieni darba l-anġlu tal-Mulej sejjaħ lil Abraħam  mis-smewwiet u qallu:  "Naħlef fuq ruħi – oraklu tal-Mulej – la darba  int għamilt ħaġa bħal din, u ma ċaħħadtnix minn ibnek il-waħdieni, jien imbierkek żguru u nkattarlek sewwa lil nislek bħall-kwiekeb tas-sema u bħar-ramel f'xatt il-baħar; u nislek  għad jret bwieb l-għedewwa tiegħu.  U jitbierku b'nislek il-ġnus kollha tal-art talli smajt minn kelmti." Il-Kelma tal-Mulej.

Responsorial Psalm                   PSalm 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19

R. (116:9)  I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.

I believed, even when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted.”
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.                                R.

O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.                         R/

My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.                                                        R/

Salm Responsorjali                              Salm 115(116)

R/   Jien nimxi quddiem il-Mulej f'art il-ħajjiin.

Bqajt nemmen, imqar meta għedt:

"Jien imdejjaq ħafna!"

Għażiża f'għajnejn il-Mulej

hi l-mewt tal-ħbien tiegħu/                                       R/

Iva, Mulej, jien qaddej tiegħek,

jien qaddej tiegħek, bin il-qaddejja tiegħek.

Int ħallejtli l-irbit tiegħi.

Lilek noffri sagrifiċċju ta' radd il-ħajr,

u isem il-Mulej insejjaħ.                                              R/

Intemm lill-Mulej il-wegħdiet tiegħi,

quddiem il-poplu tiegħu kollu,

 fil-btieħi ta' dar il-Mulej,

ġo nofsok, Ġerusalemm!                                              R

Reading 2                                         ROMans 8:31B-34

Brothers and sisters: If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son  but handed him over for us all,  how will he not also give us everything else along with him? Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us, who will condemn? Christ Jesus it is who died—or, rather, was raised— who also is at the right hand of God,  who indeed intercedes for us. .  This is the Word of the Lord.

It-Tieni Lezzjoni  -   mill-Ittra lir-Rumani 8. 31b-34

Ħuti, jekk Alla hu magħna min jista' jkun kontra tagħna? Hu, li lanqas lil Ibnu stess ma ħafirha, imma tah għalina lkoll, kif ma jagħtuniex ukoll kollox miegħu? Min je jakkuża l-magħżulin ta' Alla?  Alla stess hu dak li jiġġusstifikahom.   Min se jikkundannhom?   Kristu Ġesu' li  miet, jew aħjar, li qam mill-imwiet, jinsab fuq il-lemin ta'  Alla, hu li jidħol għalina. Il-Kelma tal-Mulej

Gospel                                                                                MarK 9:2-10

Jesus took Peter, James, and John  and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.  nd he was transfigured before them,  and his clothes became dazzling white,  such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,  and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,  “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents:  one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;  from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves,  questioning what rising from the dead meant.  This is the Word of the Lord.

L-Evanġelju  -  skont San Mark  9, 2-10

F'dak iż-żmien, Ġesu' ħa miegħu lil Pietru u lil Ġakbu u  lil  Ġwanni, tellagħhom   weħidhom fuq muntanja għolja, u  tbiddel  quddiemhom.   Ilbiesu sar abjad u jgħammex b'dija  tal-għaġeb:  ebda ħassiel fid-dinja ma jista' jġib il-ħwejjeġ bojod daqshekk.   U dehrilhom Elija ma' Mose' jitkellmu ma' Ġesu'. Qabad Pietru u qal lil Ġesu': "Mgħallem, kemm u sew li aħna hawn!   Ħa ntellgħu tliet tined, waħda għalik, waħda għal Mose', u oħra għal Elija."   Dan qalu għax ma kienx jaf x'jaqbad jgħid bil-biża' kbir li waqa' fuqhom. Imbagħad ġiet sħaba u għattiethom, u minn ġos-sħaba nstama' leħen jgħid:  "Dan hu Ibni l-għażiż, isimgħu lilu."   Minnufih taw ħarsa madwarhom, u ma raw lil ħadd iżjem magħhom ħlief lil Ġesu' waħdu. Huma u neżlin minn fuq il-muntanja, tahom ordni biex ma jitkellmu ma ħadd fuq li kienu raw qabel ma Bin il-bniedem ikun qam mill-imwiet.   Huma żammew kollox moħbi, iżda bdew jistaqsu lil xulxin x'kin ifissier tqum mill-imwiet. Il-Kelma tal-Mulej

////////////////////////////

Father Cantalamessa on Where Jesus Speaks

Pontifical Household Preacher Looks at This Sunday's Gospel

Listen to Him!

"This is my beloved Son; listen to him." With these words, God the Father gave Jesus Christ to humanity as its sole and definitive Teacher, superior to the laws and the prophets.   Where is Jesus speaking today, so that we can hear him? He speaks to us above all through our conscience. It is a sort of "repeater," set within us, of the very voice of God. But conscience is not enough on its own. It is easy to make it say what we like to hear.

Thus it needs to be illuminated and supported by the Gospel and the teaching of the Church. The Gospel is the place par excellence in which Jesus speaks to us today. But we know by experience that the words of the Gospel can also be interpreted in different ways. It is the Church, instituted by Christ precisely for this end, which assures us of an authentic interpretation: "He who hears you hears me." Because of this it is important that we endeavor to know the doctrine of the Church, to know it firsthand, as she herself understands and proposes it, not in the interpretation -- often distorted and reductive -- of the media.

Almost as important as knowing where Jesus is speaking today is to know where he does not speak.  Needless to say, he does not speak through wizards, fortunetellers, necromancers, horoscope orators, alleged extraterrestrial messages; he does not speak in spiritualistic sessions, in occultism.

In Scripture, we read this warning in this regard: "Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortuneteller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord" (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).

These were the pagans' typical ways of referring to the divine, who read the future by consulting the stars, or animals' entrails, or birds' flight. With that phrase of God -- "Listen to him!" -- all that came to an end. There is only one mediator between God and men; we are no longer obliged to move "blindly" to know the divine will, or to consult this or that source. In Christ we have all the answers.

Lamentably, today those pagan rites are again fashionable. As always, when true faith decreases, superstition increases. Let us take the most innocuous thing of all, the horoscope.  It can be said that there is no newspaper or radio station that does not offer daily its readers or hearers their horoscope. For mature persons, gifted with a minimum capacity for criticism and irony, it is no more than an innocuous joke, a kind of game or pastime.

Meanwhile, however, let us consider the long-term effects. What mentality is formed, especially in children and adolescents? A mentality according to which success in life does not depend on effort, diligence in studies and constancy in work, but of imponderable external factors; being able to acquire certain powers -- one's own or others' -- for one's own benefit.    Worse still: All this leads one to think that, in good and evil, the responsibility is not ours, but of the "stars," as Don Ferrante thought, of Manzonian memory.

I must allude to another realm in which Jesus does not speak and where, however, he is made to speak all the time: that of private revelations, heavenly messages, apparitions and voices of various kinds. I do not say that Christ or the Virgin cannot also speak through these means. They have done so in the past and they can do so, of course, also today.

It is only that before taking for granted that it is Jesus or the Virgin, and not someone's sick imagination, or worse, of fraudsters who speculate with people's good faith, it is necessary to have guarantees. In this area, it is necessary to wait for the judgment of the Church, and not precede it. Dante's words are still timely: "Christians, be firmer when you move: do not be like feathers in the wind."

St. John of the Cross said that ever since the Father said about Jesus on Tabor: "Listen to him!" God made himself, in a certain sense, dumb. He has said it all; he has nothing new to reveal.  Those who ask for new revelations or answers, offend him, as if he has yet to explain himself clearly. God continues to say to all the same word: "Listen to him, read the Gospel: You will find there, no more and no less, all that you seek."   

[Translation by ZENIT]  © Innovative Media Inc.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////