Many people have at least a passing awareness of the world of sports. For example, you probably know that the Winter Olympics, going on for 2 weeks in Pyeongchang, South Korea, will have their Closing Ceremonies tonight.

You may know too that the young NASCAR driver, Austin Dillion,

won the Daytona 500 last Sunday to open the Stock Car racing season.

Plus there’s a lot going on with Basketball and Hockey seasons coming to a close

and Baseball and Softball and Soccer seasons just beginning.

Now, if you listen to the athletes being interviewed after a competition, you’ll often hear them say something like, “All I know is ... I gave it 100%”. 

Or they may say, “I came up short ... but I gave it everything I had.”

Coaches love to hear these words from the athletes they train because ...

they indicate the total investment they made of themselves in the event.

It indicates that they completely spent themselves and held nothing back.

You may know that the higher you go in levels of competition ...

the greater is the commitment that is required for success.

I remember doing pretty good as a starting guard on my 8^th grade Basketball team, but then I didn’t make the cut when I tried out for the High-school Basketball team.

So, instead, I became a pretty good swimmer on my High School Swim Team but when I got to college, I took one look at the records they posted for the various strokes and I made the decision that competing at the college level was not for me.

Could I have been successful at swimming in college? Maybe, but it would have taken a heroic level of commitment and effort and I wasn’t willing to do that.

After all, my first priority was to get a good education not letter in Swimming.

The higher the prize, the higher is the commitment that is required to get the prize.

This shows up in virtually every area of our lives, not just sports.

• If you want to make the Dean’s List in school,
• If you want to earn the Eagle Award in Scouting,
• If you want to be the President of the company or the Country,

it’s going to take every bit of your devotion and dedication. 

You’ll have to be totally committed to your goal.

Now what would you say is the loftiest goal that you’d ever like to achieve?

Well, I hope you’d say ... without any hesitation ... to be a Saint in Heaven!

No matter what vocation or profession you may find yourself in right now ...

No matter how smart you are or how athletic you are ...

the prize of all prizes ... would be to have eternal Life with God in Heaven.

And based on what we know about attaining prizes on earth, attaining this lofty goal will only be possible if we demonstrate a high level of devotion & dedication to it.

In our First Reading from the Book of Genesis today we heard,

“God put Abraham to the test.”

He did indeed! God wanted to see just how committed Abraham was to Him.

So, God gave him no small test; He asked Abraham to sacrifice his only begotten son! Now recall that when God called Abraham out of Ur to lead the Chosen People into the Promised Land, he and his wife, Sarah, were childless,

yet God kept promising him that his descendants would one day be as numerous as

the stars in the sky ... or the sand on the shore of the sea.

Finally, when Abraham was 100 years old, God blessed him with a son, Isaac, whom he loved.  And now through his son ... Abraham could see how ...

he could truly be ... the father of many descendants.

But then, when Isaac is still a boy, God tells him to offer him up as a sacrifice!

Surely that had to be most troubling to Abraham.

For how could he ever be the father of many descendants if he kills his only son?

This was a huge test!

Will Abraham do what God asks him ... and trust that God

can still somehow keep His promise to give him numerous descendants?

Or will Abraham disobey God and take matters into his own hands ...

so that he is sure that he will have his own descendants?

Scripture says that Abraham proceeds to do exactly what God asked Him to do, which showed that he was fully committed to God’s plan and not his own plan.

God was so impressed with Abraham’s commitment,

that He sent His angel to hold back his hand and spare his son

If a news reporter would have been there at the scene, to interview Abraham right after this event, He probably would have heard Abraham say,

“All I know is that I gave it 100%”. 

Or even, “I gave it everything I had.”

And he would have been absolutely right!   You see,

in his willingness to sacrifice his son ... his only son, whom he loved ...

Abraham was willing to give God ... everything he had.

I’ll bet you parents can appreciate the incredible commitment to God

that Abraham demonstrated in this situation.

What if God had asked you to sacrifice your firstborn son or daughter to Him?

I’m sure your first thought would be, “God, take my car, my money, my house,

even my own life, but please don’t let anything happen to my child.” 

To be willing to give up one’s child, would be the ultimate sign of commitment.

And that’s exactly the Sign that God the Father gave us ...

when He sent His only–begotten Son to Earth to suffer and die for our sins!

God held back the spear from Isaac ...

but He didn’t hold back the spear from His own Son.

And it doing this ... God truly gave  ... everything He had.

There’s no clearer sign of God’s great love for us than the fact that ...

He gave up His Son to death ... for our sakes.

In our Second Reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Paul emphasizes God’s total commitment to us. He says, “He who did not spare his own Son but handed Him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?"

There’s no greater sign of God’s love for us than the fact that ...

He offered up His Son, His only Son,  whom he loved, to death ... for our salvation.

If anyone has the right to say, “I gave everything I had!” ... it’s God! 

In sending us His Son to suffer and die for our sins, He showed us that He is

committed to us in a most extraordinary and exceptional way.

As Paul says, “If God did this, why would he not give us everything else?”

What does Paul mean by “everything else”?

Well, we got a glimpse of it in our Gospel today ...

when Jesus takes Peter, James and John apart by themselves

and is transfigured before them.

The word used in the Greek New Testament to describe the Transfiguration is metamorphose which means “going beyond the form”.

You see, in that brief, shining moment on the mountain, Jesus revealed

the transfigured humanity that will mark those who dwell in Heaven ...

beautiful, elevated, dazzling , outside the confines of space and time!

Jesus did this to give all of His followers a burst of hope to carry them through the difficulties and struggles of this life and remain committed to receiving

“everything else” that God wants us to have ... which is Heaven.

God gave us Jesus because He wants us to have it all ... in Heaven.

How exactly do we secure such a marvelous prize?

We follow The Father’s instruction that He gave to all at the Transfiguration:

“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

The Father says ... Listen to Jesus.    And what does Jesus tell us?

Well, we heard some of His words when we received ashes on Ash Wednesday.

They were the first words of Jesus recorded in Mark’s Gospel

“Repent, and believe in the Gospel!”

Do you remember hearing those words?

Those words should resonate in your mind over and over again, throughout Lent.

“Repent, and believe in the Gospel!”

Lent is that special holy time to ask ourselves ... am I listening to Jesus?

As we enter the 2^nd Week of Lent, let’s renew ourselves in our prayers, penance and practices. Let’s use this time wisely to show God just how committed we are to attaining the lofty prize that He offers us, the prize of having a glorified body

that lives with Him forever in the Communion of Saints in Heaven.

If God is so committed to us … how can we not be committed to Him?

Athletes leave everything on the field or the court.

God left everything on the Cross.

God gave us everything when He gave us His Son.

And in His great love ... He wants to give us everything else ... which is Heaven.

Let’s listen to Jesus and stay committed to attaining the Prize,

so that when the day comes that we get to stand before Him,

we’ll be able to say with all honesty, “Lord I gave You 100%;

                                                                             I gave You everything I had.”