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THE SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT: February 24, 2012
The Book of Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18
St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians 3:17-4:1
The holy Gospel according to Luke 9:28b-36
I remember a night many, many years ago. I was a young by then. I sat in the dormer window of my bedroom and gazed into the starry heavens. I can’t remember whether I was praying or not. Certainly I wondered about God and Jesus. The question of vocation churned in my mind. What did Jesus want me to do if I followed him. My child’s mind sought reassurance, a glimpse into the future that would make decision less risky. My childish mind wanted to know that everything would work out, that dreams would be realized and I would be safe.
Was it naiveté to ask for a sign? That’s what I prayed for. Give me a sign so that I will know what you want me to do. Hubris? From my present vantage point it would seem so. But that isn’t how I remember that moment. There was too much pleading and too many tears for hubris. Even now that moment is etched clearly and indelibly in my consciousness. One word whispered into the night escaped my lips. Please! In that moment a ball of light streaked through the sky, brilliant and brief, bright and beautiful. All I could do was gasp and wonder. A prayer answered? A sign granted? These many years later, it seems so still.
Signs. Omens. The stuff of seers and sages to interpret. But I have clung to that moment and returned to it in challenging times, finding in it reassurance. Abram in this Sunday’s first reading had moments to remember that supported his faith in God and the promised multitudes that would be his descendants. But I had no history then, only the memories of my first encounter with the Lord in the Waters. It wasn’t long after my baptism that I sat in the window on that star-filled night. I was a neophyte. I was just beginning my journey one the Way.
Every Second Sunday of Lent the Gospel proclaimed is one of the accounts of the Transfiguration? In each one, the favored trio, also early on their journey with Jesus, are invited by him to journey with him to the mountain top. They are neophytes, too, their faith incipient. Their journey with Jesus is unprecedented. They can’t know that they will be going to Jerusalem with Jesus where they will watch him be rejected, condemned, suffer scourging, crucifixion and death. All that is to come. At this moment on the mountain top their heads swim with what seems an affirmation of their faith in Jesus, that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed of God who will change their history for ever.
Notice the imagery that attempts to describe the majestic moment. Jesus radiates on shimmering garments, his face like the sun. Moses and Elijah, the embodiment of the Law and the Prophets appear in conversation with Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. The three must have felt their “Amens” rising within them as Moses and Elijah talked to Jesus about what he would accomplish in Jerusalem. He will lead the people out of slavery into the freedom of the people of God. To the three everything seemed so right in a moment that they wanted to go on and on – like a fantastic dream from which they did not want to wake. Cling to the moment. Peter voiced it when he 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.
Then the cloud envelops them, signifying the presence of God, just as it had on the mountain when Moses received the Law. Now comes the New Law. This is my chosen Son; listen to him. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
You will notice that the Gospel ends by declaring that the three did not understand what they had seen nor the implications of their encounter. Consequently, they will not tell anyone else about what had happened, not at that time. It will take from then until the Resurrection and their encounter with the Spirit before they will understand and be able to interpret the event and announce the Good News.
In the second reading, Paul voices his frustration with the Philippians, some of whom are trying to reimpose the Law as the means of salvation. That is not what Paul had taught them. Paul had preached that salvation comes not through obedience to the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself.
…In this way stand firm in the Lord.
Do we need this epiphany moment of Transfiguration recalled as we begin the Lenten journey? Or is this for those among us we pray with and for who are heading for the Font to die there with Christ and experience rebirth in him? The truth is, we all need the telling because no faith journey is without hazard. Each of us as disciples walks with Jesus on a twisting and winding path. Each one will face unexpected challenges to faith, moments that could elicit doubt, events that will threaten to stifle and break the believing heart.
I begin to think that the journey is one of having preconceptions stripped away. That sure and confident incipient faith must be refined and purified to bring us to what it is that we truly believe. It is only when everything else is gone that we will understand the Transfiguration and who this is that is the Beloved of God. Then when we have died to everything else we will be ready for Easter.
I remember sitting with a young couple in a hospital room. The mother sat in a rocking chair and cradled the dead infant in her arms. She rocked and hummed a lullaby. Her husband knelt and placed his head in her lap. Tears streaked both their faces. Time passed. An hour? A moment? Time froze. Then she said, Jesus knows. Jesus cares.
What was she remembering? An Easter past? What was the source of her hope? Conviction about an Easter to come?
May the Spirit strengthen our faith and help us to remember!
Sincerely,
Didymus