2nd Sunday of Lent

The first reading tells us about the weight and penalty of sin: death. Through the Fall, disharmony and death entered the world. Death: the natural consequence of our turning away from our God who is Love itself.

Perhaps it wasn't so outrageous to ask Abraham to sacrifice is son. Perhaps it was the just thing: that one man die so that all might live. Yet, God intervenes. He prevents Abraham from killing Isaac, keeping the hope of His redemptive promise alive.

This promise is fulfilled in the Crucifixion. God lets the consequence of evil play out to the end this time, but He doesn't let it happen to us. It happens to Him. It happens to His perfect Son who is total love. He takes on all that we have earned in sin unto death, and He takes it into Himself.

He embraces death so that we can embrace Him. We need not fear death. He conquers it so that we might live fully in the Resurrection with Him.