There is a man of faith I have been counseling who lost his 19-year-old son through suicide. The boy was his life and more - the redemption of all his father had failed to be. Can you imagine the devastation of a man who now thinks of God as too distant to save his son from death? But Abraham's dilemma (Genesis 22) was that God asked him to sacrifice his son whom he had hoped would be his redemption from passing away into nothingness. What kind of God demands the sacrifice of one's son?

The second Sunday of Lent presents us with the dilemma: What is this God really all about?

The Lenten response to the question is the transfiguration (Mark 9:2-10). The church shows us Christ tempted every first Sunday of Lent and on the second Sunday shows us Christ transfigured. First he appears like us in our weakness and then suddenly he is shining with the glory and power of God whose voice is affirming once again that this is the beloved Son and we should listen closely to him. What are we to hear that can balance our disgust at a God who lets - rather demands - the death of our loved ones who are our hope for redemption from our own passing away into nothingness?

Let's look first at a small coincidence, if there indeed are any real coincidences. On Aug. 6 many centuries ago, the church started celebrating a feast day in honor of the Transfiguration of Christ. It occurred 40 days before the Feast of the Holy Cross, Sept. 14, and recalls how Christ strengthened his disciples to endure his crucifixion. Centuries later, there was a bomb dropped on Aug. 6, 1945 which presaged the transformation of our world by nuclear arms. We are now dreading the day someone from a poor, violent and hopeless people may set off another such device not to end a war but to even a score. The nations wait to see if the transfiguration of the world by the hand of man will be its destruction.

Every Second Sunday of Lent, Christ is presented transfigured on the mountain before the same three disciples who will witness his agony in the garden the night he is betrayed. The great mystery which is God comes closer to us in the person of Jesus whose shining glory, as the Son who loves the Father, is that he will pass away. We are called to listen to his passing and to hear the Father's voice (Romans 8:31-34). If God is so close that he is willing to suffer like us in the death of his own Son, then perhaps he is close enough to us that what is shining in Jesus can shine in us. God has shown he is for us by giving us his Son. Will he not give us everything besides?

And so it is. What God is really like becomes clearer as Lent progresses toward Easter. The earth and humankind can be transfigured by our violence - even become a cosmic cinder. But God has decided and is already at work transfiguring men and women by the same Father's love which is the glory of Christ, the Son. As Lent proceeds our penances become more important. Penance is the way to take in love. By learning through penance to let go of all we hold dear, we can receive everything back, transfigured.

Father Richard Chiola is a certified counselor, pastor of St. Cabrini Parish in Springfield and diocesan director for the ongoing formation of clergy.