Opening the Word: Second Sunday of Lent (03/16/2025)

Opening the Word is a series of prompts from The Emmaus Institute for Biblical Studies to help focus our minds and hearts on the Sunday Mass Readings. After Jesus revealed Himself to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, they said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). Our Lord desires to enflame our hearts also by revealing Himself to us in His Word. Take this opportunity to pause, and allow the Lord to make Himself known to you through the opening of the Scriptures which will ready your eyes to see Him in the breaking of the bread.

Second Sunday of Lent: March 16, 2025

First Reading: Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14 

Second Reading: Philippians 3:17–4:1

Gospel: Luke 9:28b-36

Step 1: Begin in prayer, asking the Lord to open your heart to receive how He wants to make Himself known to you. Then, attentively read the Scriptures. 

Step 2: Consider these meditation prompts that follow from the readings:

1. Pay careful attention to the sequence of events in the first reading: in the beginning, the Lord took Abram outside and asked him to count the stars in the sky “if you can,” but it isn’t until near the end of the reading that the sun sets. What time of day was it, then, when the Lord asked Abram to look up and count the stars? How does this reveal the way God invites us to trust in his plans and promises?

2. In the iconic scene of the transfiguration, there is a significant keyword that only Luke gives us that our Lord speaks to Moses and Elijah. It says that Jesus “spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.” Consider how the exodus of Jesus will model and fulfill the exodus led by Moses, specifically: if the first exodus freed us from bondage to Egypt, what does this new exodus free us from? Where is the new Passover Lamb? And finally, where does the new exodus lead us?  

Step 3: Conclude with a prayer of gratitude and ask the Lord to keep these Words in your heart.