Mountains appear frequently in the Bible as places of encounter with God. Moses and Elijah, who enter today's Gospel speaking with Jesus, had encounters with God on a mountain.
The mountains represent breathing fresh air, getting away from the hustle and bustle of life, having a broader vision and contemplating the beauty of creation.
Prayer is a mountain: we escape the rush of the day to breathe in God, we rise above daily events to meet the Lord, to glimpse his glory and beauty. But they can also be places of trial.
The first reading shows Abraham taking his son Isaac up the mountain, ready to kill him as an offering to the Lord, in obedience to what God had commanded him, although in the end God does not demand the sacrifice. It was simply a test of Abraham's faith.
On this same mountain, centuries later, the heavenly Father will offer his Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice for our salvation, demanding of himself what he did not ask of Abraham.
"Jesus took with him Peter, James and John, and went up with them to a high mountain by themselves, and was transfigured before them.". As Pope Benedict explained, it is not a light projected on Jesus, but a light coming from him.
"God of God, light of light"It is a glimmer of the light that Jesus has, that he is. But this light was so captivating that Peter wanted to prolong the experience. This gives us an idea of the joy and beauty of heaven, where we will live forever in the light of the Lamb (Rev 21:23).
However, on the way down from Mount "commanded them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man was raised from the dead.". This glimpse of glory is a foretaste of the Resurrection, but to reach it Christ must pass through his Passion, through the mountain of Golgotha.
In the end, if we remain faithful, we will see Jesus, the Lamb of God, glorified on the mountain of the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev 21:9-10, 22).
To reach this glorious mountain we must climb the mountain of prayer and also be willing to face the mountain of trial, obedient to God even when we do not understand what he asks of us.
Homily on the readings of the Second Sunday of Lent
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.
