SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT C
2019
From
the Gospel, Jesus took Peter, James and John and went up to the mountain to
pray. While he was praying, his face
changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white…Then from the
cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
Peter said to Jesus, “Master
it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for
Moses, and one for Elijah.” The sight of
Jesus transfigured in his risen glory, flanked by two of the most significant
leaders of their nation’s history, was unmistakably impressive to the
disciples. It is no surprise that Peter
wanted to hold onto the moment, pitch some tents, and stay awhile. Wasn’t this hour the summation of a career,
as good as it was likely to get? Why
leave, when it was literally downhill from here? From Peter’s perspective, it would be easier
to stay on the mountaintop, but that wasn’t the mission of Jesus.
What Peter didn’t understand
was something Paul would later explain, that Jesus did not deem equality with
God something to be grasped at. Jesus
did not hold onto golden moments or hang out in towns where the healings and
teaching made him something of a superstar.
Rather, Jesus emptied something to take on our humanity. That was the plan. And he kept to the plan all the way to the
cross.
What is the meaning and
purpose of the Transfiguration of Jesus?
Jesus knew very well that His journey to Jerusalem, his passion and
death, were going to be overwhelming for His followers. They would need a faith perspective to make
sense out of His suffering and death. To
sustain them in their moments of questioning and doubts and disbelief and
desperation, Jesus wanted to provide His disciples with a glimpse of Him in his
risen glory. Being filled with the Transfiguration faith
perspective, they could better trust that even His passion and death were part
of the mystery of God’s saving love for us.
Without a faith perspective,
the Passion of the Christ is much too brutal and horrific. The Transfiguration gave the disciples a
preview, a context to situate the passion of Christ into the paschal mystery of
the passion, death and resurrection. If
the apostles were to be sustained to come to a resurrection faith, they needed
the flashback of the Transfiguration glory to sustain them in the valley of the
Lord’s passion.
We too need to be sustained
in our valleys of doubt and confusion. The
grace we seek is to be able to recognize the Transfiguration moments in our own
lives. This doesn’t mean we have to go
Fatima or Lourdes or Medugorje. May we
not overlook the traces of divine revelation in the ordinary events of
life. As the apostle Paul suggests in
today’s second reading, God is revealed in the goodness of others. The goodness of others is revealed in
ordinary lives. It is the way they are
living these lives than make them extraordinary. To recognize our Transfiguration moments, we
must have eyes that see beyond what we ordinarily see.
Stephen Covey tells of an
experience he had on a New York subway one Sunday morning. The people on the subway were sitting
quietly. Some were reading newspapers,
some were dozing, and others were simply contemplating with eyes closed. It was a rather peaceful, calm scene. At one stop a man and his children entered
the car. The children were soon yelling
back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people’s newspapers. It was all very disturbing and yet the father
just sat there and did nothing. It was
not difficult to feel irritated. Stephen
could not believe the man could be so insensitive as to let his children run
wild and do nothing about it. So
finally, with what he thought was admirable restraint and patience, he said to
the man: “Sir, your children are really
disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if
you couldn’t control them a bit more.”
The man lifted his gaze as if coming into consciousness for the first
time and said: “Oh, you’re right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their
mother died about an hour ago. I don’t
know what to think, and I guess they don’t know how to handle it either.”
Stephen then said: “Can you imagine how I felt at that
moment? Suddenly I saw things
differently. Because I saw differently,
I felt differently, I behaved differently.
My irritation vanished. My heart
was filled with this man’s pain and grief.
“Your wife just died. I’m so
sorry! What can I do to help?”
Nothing changed in the subway
car. All was the same: the same people, the same irritation, the
same kids. What did change was a way of
seeing it all and a change in behavior.
This is the Grace of
Transfiguration. We are able to see
differently. The sufferings, the crosses
of our life are not a dead end street.
We seek to be able to look at life from the vantage of faith, of our
faith in Jesus.
Are you able to see that the
particular crosses in your life now with a Transfiguration/Resurrection faith
that enables to trust that God goes with you and the crosses of life are not a
dead end street; rather they are the pathway to our sharing in the risen life
of Christ.
As we reflect on the dark
cloud of sexual abuse in our Church today, may each of us with a
Transfiguration faith ask ourselves what can we do to help; what can we do to make
a difference and rebuild trust and integrity in the leadership of our Church.
During this Lenten season in
the spiritual disciplines we have embraced, may we commit to journey with the
crucified Christ so that we fully share in the risen life of Jesus in the Easter
season. If we are able to look at the crosses of our
lives with a Transfiguration faith, the crosses are part of our discipleship of
Jesus; the crosses are painful; but be assured these crosses are our pathway to
sharing in the risen life of Jesus. It
is our transfiguration faith that enables us to believe in the deep truth that
in dying we are born to eternal life.
Have a blessed day!
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