"This is my beloved Son . . . listen to Him"
Matthew 17: 1-9
The Catholic funeral liturgy is a beautiful celebration of
Christian hope. It begins, if the body
is present which is always the preferred way, with a blessing of holy water on
the casket of the deceased. The body is
covered in a white garment, which indicates the white garment of baptism. Then an option is offered which I always
use. A book of the Gospels is placed on
the casket with the words: “In life N.
cherished the Gospel of Christ. May Christ now greet him/her with these words
of eternal life: Come, blessed of my Father!”
Then a cross is placed with the words: “In baptism N. received the sign of the cross. May he/she now share in
Christ’s victory over sin and death.” I find those comforting and hopeful.
So, what we hear is that we live
by the Gospel, the living word of God, and we have hope through the death and
resurrection of Christ.
Last Sunday our Gospel took us into the desert with Jesus where
he confronted the power of evil face to face and overcame that power. This Sunday we find ourselves on a mountain
top. . If you've ever been at such a prominent height, such as a mountain top, you know the view is impressive. But it's more than just a brief moment of awe and beauty. A very different scene takes place as Christ is transformed, significantly changed in appearance before the eyes of three select disciples
Here he reveals his divinity and his link with the law and the
prophets as the One who would come to free humanity from the ultimate power of
evil that is death. Here a greater hope is promised but the prominent shadow of
the Cross is shown. We hear that Christ is the Word made flesh and he points to
the cross as his destiny and our hope.
Yet, this drama began centuries before with the call of Abram
in the desert, our first reading from Genesis.
Abram, later Abraham, is an old man of 75 when he is called by God to
leave his “father’s house” and move out into a new land with merely a promise
from God that he would be blessed significantly. In fact, we hear of five blessing from God to
Abram.
These blessings are a promise, a sign of hope for the future: “I
will make you great and I will bless you . . . make you name great, you will be
a blessing . . . I will bless those who bless you . . . all the communities of
the earth shall find a blessing in you.” To bless and to be a blessing in this
context is a promise of partnership, a friendship with God and foreshadows our
own destiny. A blessing, or grace as we
may call it, is a confirmation of our friendship with God, not as equals but as
creator and created. That blessing we see fulfilled in Jesus and he confirms
this before his three disciples.
On that mountain, wherever it was in ancient Israel, we may say
that Peter, James and John were fortunate or blessed to be there. In fact Peter impulsively wanted to just stay
and absorb the wonderful experience of basking in the glory of God, as
terrifying as it was when they heard the voice of the Father speak from the
shining cloud. Yet, the focus was not on
them so much as it clearly was on Jesus before them. Christ affirmed that he was the word made
flesh; that although the disciples had only experienced the Jesus of history,
they now are blessed to see the Jesus of faith, an almost resurrection
experience before that great event.
Now if a human body (Jesus) is suddenly transfigured to a human form filled with
glory, that shines like the sun, two long ago dead significant Jewish figures
appear in a cloud that shines and a voice that booms from it doesn’t cause you
to stop and listen, nothing ever will! Certainly, this was not a Hollywood
special effect but rather a deep truth uncovered for these future leaders of
the Church.
This second Sunday of our Lenten journey brings us face to face
with a moment to listen. That is, Jesus
is not a normal human being. His nature
is both human and divine; that his mission is beyond this world and that he has
come in the line of the prophets as the sign of God’s new Covenant, originally
established through Abram (our first reading from Genesis) and Moses as the
final fulfillment of that sacred Law.
For three Jews to witness such an event it would have all come
together in a profound way. God has
fulfilled his promise to Israel and to all of humanity. This is God’s answer to our sinful
disobedience which estranged us from God. (Recall last Sunday’s story of Adam
and Eve from Genesis 2). Now, in Christ,
his future passion, death and resurrection, a new and eternal Covenant is
established between God and humanity. Still, why not build three tents? Why not hold on to this glory?
Yet, here Jesus strengthened them for the days ahead – a time
of no glory but suffering and passion; the seeming failure of a mission with
the best of intentions. This was an
encounter they would need to never forget for beyond the suffering Messiah,
there would come greater glory in the resurrection when the full story would be
uncovered of Jesus’ identity and mission, which is now that of the Church. For now, hold on to this but bring it down
the mountain for future reference when the mission will carry on beyond
Jerusalem to the entire world.
In the end, the grace of God, his blessing as it were, is given
to us all so that we may listen more attentively in order to recognize the
voice of God in our own moments of change or transfiguration. Isn’t that the desert we walk this Lent. To discover that we are blessed with mercy
from God and that this Lent is always a time for us to stop talking and to
listen to God that we may be changed.
In prayer, in charitable service, in the sacraments, in
compassion for another, at a time when we include another without judgement and
recognize their human dignity, in the sacred Word of God, in the Holy
Eucharist, in spiritual reading, in a tough time I’ve endured, in the sickness
of another or a word spoken to me or who known where and how and when God will
call our attention to himself and demand our ear. All these are moments of
encounter with Christ but do I hear him? It may not be a shining face, a voice
from clouds above or even at a mountain top moment. How, when or where God will
speak to us we will never know if we are not paying attention or wrapped in our
own preconceived perception of holiness or self - righteousness.
Peter, James and John are more like us than we may admit. They needed to learn and to be formed in the
Gospel truth of who Jesus was and who he remains but they eventually made the
grade. They learned to listen to him.
At Mass we hear his Word and we encounter his living presence
in the Eucharist - are we changed by him?
Let's pray this Lent teaches us to listen more and talk less that by his
grace we may be changed for Easter resurrection. The Word and the Cross is our hope.
After he had told the disciples of his coming Death,
on the holy mountain
he manifested to them his glory,
to show, even by the testimony of the law and the prophets,
that the Passion leads to the glory of the Resurrection.
(From Preface for Sunday)
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