For Abram, whose life and aspirations are the context of today’s First Reading, his focus is on the alone-ness of being without any descendants. He doesn’t truly realize that it is the lack of his relationship with the Lord that leaves him being and feeling alone. God points out to him that there is a history already which they share. The covenant with him that God proposes declares this history, establishes beyond doubt their relationship in the present, and sets the stage for God’s saving wonders in all time to come. Shortly after the selection for today’s reading, the Book of Genesis recounts that even the promise of descendants, seemingly beyond the reach of Abram is fulfilled!
Paul, too, previously walled in by his desperate and angry enforcement of Jewish Law comes to know a new way of being and belonging. He can let go of the measures and manipulation of the law, practiced especially by his earthly bound contemporaries. Their thoughts and choices, shaped merely by earthly desires are neither “enough” nor “on the mark.” Paul has come to realize that his and our citizenship is in heaven. This renewed covenant in Christ makes all the difference in how we appreciate the world around us and within us.
Today’s account of Christ’s Transfiguration pulls back the curtain from the Mystery in Jesus for the sake of the disciples who were with him. Aloneness which could only be pointed out by the Law will be overcome by the New and Eternal Covenant in Christ. The words and images of the Prophets of Old are fulfilled in the reality of Christ, Priest, Prophet and King. What, if anything, blocks us from finding total comfort in this Truth of Christ? What, if anything, blocks us from seeing and experiencing the people around us and the things of this world through the prism and promise of our citizenship in heaven? There is our work for Lent.