2nd Sunday of Lent (Continuing Threads in our Lives)

You’ve surely noticed that even as we individually grow and develop, from the time we first begin to show our personalities and behaviors--even as all that change happens within us, there are certain things about us that remain. Even as we age, we see our faces, as we know them now, in our baby photos—certain characteristics remain. And we also bear lifelong connections with places, especially the places we’re from. Like your personality traits, your appearance, places—they all remain as continuing threads in you and in your life story. And your story alone is amazing, even if you believe it mundane or at times disappointing.

But while each of us has our own particular—and yes, amazing stories—we together, are part of a larger story—the life of humanity, if you will. We call it salvation history. And while there are continuing threads that run through the course of our lives as individuals, there are likewise, threads that run through salvation history. One of these common threads happens to be a particular location.

When I was soon to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land—with all the special sites on our itinerary, including those where we were scheduled to celebrate Mass as a group—the priest-chaplain of the group, reached out to both me and my friend, Fr. Jerry Burns, and very generously asked each of us if we would like to be the principal celebrant for any of the scheduled Masses. Fr. Jerry requested the church that currently stands where Jesus proclaimed the Beatitudes in Galilee. I swung for the fences, boldly requesting to be the celebrant at Calvary. I anticipated the answer to be, “No, please choose another”. To my surprise, he said okay.

That day on our pilgrimage, the group started at 5:00am, at the ancient walls of Jerusalem, at Herod’s Gate. It was still dark and the city was still asleep. We walked through the ancient city, along Jesus’ Sorrowful Way, stopping to pray at each station. The route led us to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built over the rocky hill, known as Calvary in Jesus’ time.

We were each given time to kneel and pray, where Jesus’ cross was placed and to place our hands in the hole. Then, just a few feet from that spot, we celebrated Mass. After Mass, we descended steps, and entered a nearby, small cave-enclosure that tradition says is the tomb of Adam. Fittingly, his tomb is located directly beneath the location where Jesus’ cross had been placed. As Matthew’s Gospel tells us, when Jesus gave up his spirit, “the earth quaked, rocks were split” (Mt 27:50-51), thus allowing the blood of Jesus to drip through the split rock, directly onto the tomb of Adam.

This place, this location, is a significant thread throughout the story of humanity. It’s the place, where laid to rest, is the body of the man through whom sin came to us. And it’s the place where the man who would overcome that sin, would be sacrificed for us. But still more, only about 500 meters from there, is the place where the Temple in Jerusalem stood and served as the place of sacrifice. As we’re told in 2 Chronicles (2 Chr 3:1), in that very location is where, almost 2000 years before Jesus was crucified, Abraham was dumbfoundingly asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac. In other words, Mt. Moriah is Mt. Zion.

From the earliest centuries, Christians have seen the common thread in The Binding of Isaac and the Passion of Jesus. Both involve the sacrifice of a son, a beloved son. As Isaac ascended Mt. Moriah, carrying the wood over which he was to be laid as a sacrifice, so Jesus walked up Mt. Calvary, carrying the wood of the cross on which he was to be sacrificed. As the eventual sacrifice on Moriah was a ram, saving the young man, Isaac, so the sacrifice of the Lamb of God would save mankind. As Abraham trusted in God, that something good would come from offering his son as an oblation, so God trusts that something good will come from the oblation that was His Son.

So much of our shared identity, our story—salvation history—is woven into that place. It’s a continuing thread: a place where God has dwelt with us in a unique way; where God has invited us to grow in faith, as demonstrated in the troubling story of Abraham and Isaac; and where God would ultimately, surrender everything for us.

As we aspire to understand our story, we must understand it as God’s love, manifest in His willingness suffer. I love you this much….will you trust me….will you trust in the beautiful path on which I want to guide you, to reveal how I see your particular story, amazing unto itself? Will you let me guide you, even if it seems frightening or contrary to what you might otherwise choose for yourself? Will you allow my amazing story to be the continuing thread that unfolds in and through you?