Dear Parish Family,

Abraham 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.” Abraham was seventy-five. At seventy-five you’ve pretty well seen the landscape. Not much more is to be expected. But for Abraham it was the beginning. The Lord wasn’t even indicating to him what the destination would be. But he believed, packed and left. Most of those in Ur of the Chaldees must have thought he was out of his mind. When God told him that even though he and his wife Sara had been trying to conceive a child for probably 50 years without success, he would become the father of many nations, with descendants as numerous as the grains of sand on the beaches of the world and the stars in the heavens, Abraham journeyed out of his own experience of biological possibility and by faith followed the Lord, and among his descendants would be God in the flesh. His faith led him to trust in the Lord so much that there was nothing he wouldn’t do. By the time Abraham died, this is all he had: one son to carry on his posterity under this promise and two grandchildren. By anybody’s estimation, this is a very small family. Certainly, one son and two grandsons is not a great nation. Of course, as we now see it, all Jews, Christians and Muslims are the Abrahamic peoples. Many great nations are included among the Abrahamic peoples. All of them know Abraham and think that they find blessing in him. And so God’s stunning promise to Abraham has been completely fulfilled. But notice that he did not live to see it. He had to take the fulfillment of God’s promise to him on faith.
That’s why he’s called our father in faith, because he shows us what faith really is, the type of faith God wants to give us, the type of faith we will have if we respond to God with the loving, trusting obedience of faith we see in Abraham.

In the Gospel, we see how Jesus led Peter, James and John on a grueling hike up an exceedingly high mountain — an exertion of at least several hours — in order to pray with them. The mountain is a special place of prayer throughout the Bible. We see Moses climb Mt. Sinai. We see Elijah climb Mt. Horeb. The Temple was built on the top of Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. At the top of a mountain we can breathe fresh air. We can gain a different perspective, seeing so much more than we can when we’re immersed in so many things on the ground. And it was there, in the midst of prayer at the top of the mountain, that the three apostles were able to see Jesus’ glory, to see him as he really is, to see that he is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets — as Jesus himself would indicate to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus — and to hear God the Father speaking, too, indicating to them who Jesus is and how we’re called to respond.
Every Lent, Jesus wants to lead us up the same mountain on a journey of faith. He spoke to Moses and Elijah about his “exodus”, about the journey he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem, his Passover through death into life, the Passover he had indicated to his apostles, that he would be betrayed, tortured, and crucified, and on the third day rise from the dead, and that they too would have to deny themselves, pick up their cross each day and follow him — but, understandably, they were slow to believe. We, too, are slow to believe this truth. Now, 2000 years after the fact, it’s easier for us to accept, at least with regard to Jesus, but so many of us still resist the second part, that we need to follow Jesus up Calvary, that we need to lose our life to save it, to fall to the ground like a grain of wheat in order to bear any fruit. Like Peter, James and John, we need to believe in Jesus’ glory, a glory that will be our own if our faith makes our life a journey with a sure and certain destination.

 Fr. Tom Kunnel C.O.