2nd Sunday of Lent - Year C - 2025

Jeff Bagnall • 7 March 2025

Previously in chapter 12 of Genesis we read that God spoke to Abram and told him to uproot and go to where God would lead him, and that his descendants would be many, although his wife was barren. Today ( Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 ) we have a second encounter between God and Abram, who is now in the land between the Euphrates river and the Mediterranean sea. God says that he will have his own offspring and the descendants will be as many as the stars in the sky; and this promise is sealed with what is thought to have been a traditional covenant ceremony usually symbolising that both parties stake their lives and their relationship together, but here it is a unilateral promise from God Who alone passes between the carcasses. These stories in Genesis are recorded after many decades of verbal transmission and inevitably after adaptation to different situations and developments in belief, but they are held as part of the Sacred Scriptures of the Jewish people – and now part of the Christian Bible.

We read from Paul’s letter to the Philippians on the second of Advent last year where there is some background information about this letter. In this extract Paul seems to be addressing the problem that some of the Christians there, were acting as though what they did in their material existence on earth had no impact on their spiritual lives. So Paul wants to stress the reality of the Christ’s embodiment on earth and even his death on the cross – Paul himself is suffering confinement in prison as he writes, but he believes in the value of the physical because of the glorified body which we will have after death. He has a hope in seeing his Saviour soon; we do not know whether this is referring to his own death or to the climax and End of the world. Though he has to correct them, he still expresses his love for this mainly Gentile community of Christians that started in the house of Lydia.

The Gospel is the story of the transfiguration ( Luke 9:28-36 ), which links well with the second reading from Philippians. A few verses before our reading Jesus has spoken about the true attitude to have to life this side of eternity: “What does it profit them if they gain the whole world but lose or forfeit themselves?” Older translations use the word ‘soul’ but this misrepresents the meaning in our times when many think of a person as divided into body and soul, whereas in Jesus’ culture, the word referred to the whole self – its true value. These verses are suitably followed by a vision of Jesus in the after-life, where the body is glorified and the person will be in the company of all. In the stories about Moses, the end comes with him just disappearing from the scene, and as for Elijah the prophet, the story goes that he was whisked away to heaven in a chariot. The disciples are quite lost as to what to say or do, but the lesson in the context of today’s readings, is in some way about the grandeur of the human person (body and soul).

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Jeff Bagnall was a lecturer for many years at Craiglockhart College teaching RE to many future Catholic Primary teachers.

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2025 - Year C

by Jeff Bagnall • 10 October 2025

The first reading is a story from the Book of Exodus, telling the tale of one of the many incidents from that epic journey of escape from slavery in Egypt, through many ups and downs until the entry into the promised land. The whole book was put together from various collections of stories that had been passed down through at least four or five centuries of retelling. The point of the whole and of each individual story, in general terms, is to say something about God and ‘the people of the Book’ and the relationship between the two; to teach people about their responsibility towards God and about His attitude towards them. The details in this tale about warfare and the rod of Moses, if taken literally, say nothing we would regard as true about the relationship between God and people; it was this rod that seemed to clear the sea for the people to cross when escaping the Pharaoh’s army, and this rod that produced water in the wilderness. But we get closer to the point of the story’s transmission and survival in our sacred Scriptures, if we see its significance for us today; it reminds us that the power of God is in everything, though we usually think of various sacred objects as reminding us of this.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2025 - Year C

by Jeff Bagnall • 2 October 2025

These readings might speak to us when we are going through difficulties or hard times. We must trust in God, do what we should, but most of all thank God for the benefits that we do have. Naaman had to listen to his servants and not give up because there was no dramatic exhibition of a miraculous cure. The early Christian leaders, especially, had to be prepared to suffer for the work they were doing and the beliefs that they had. And like the lepers, we should be prepared to keep the rules as long as we can, but that wont save us; it is God who saves those who are faithful, as He is always reliable. The first reading reminds us how people in the time of the Old Testament lived; there were kings or tribal leaders with nobles under them, they had servants who worked and cared for them, they had their own gods who operated in their territories, miracles and drama were part of their religions and the different small nations were uncertain of each other’s ambitions and motives. The lead up to the first reading is necessary for it to make sense; Naaman was a well-respected leader in a country adjoining Israel, who had leprosy and could find no cure; one of the servants of his wife was from Israel where Elisha was well known as a prophet and man of God; she suggested a visit to him might be helpful. The party set off with plenty of payment and gifts, but Naaman was disappointed when Elisha did nothing dramatic, but merely said go and wash in our river Jordan seven times. He was about to return home disappointed when servants persuaded him to try it all the same. And then we are into today’s reading. Elisha rejects any gift for the miracle and Naaman thinks the god in this land is powerful, so takes some of the land back with him to his own territory.