"This is my Son the Beloved . . . listen to Him."
Matthew 17: 1-9
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030523.cfm
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 casket in which the deceased lies, is covered with a large white “pall” which indicates the white garment of baptism on which may be placed both a Bible and a cross.
What we know is that we live by the Gospel, the living
word of God, and we have hope for eternal life in God’s mercy through the death
and resurrection of Christ. Unfortunately, in the case of cremation none of
those signs are used. The cremains are simply sprinkled with holy water and a
brief prayer is said over them. Yet even those remains lie before the altar
next to which casket or cremains, stands the lit Easter candle. It is the person of course and we treat all in
both life and death with dignity.
The signs of promise are not just pretty liturgy but
stand as marks that this loved one lived a Christian life and that we are
called to put our faith in the Lord. It
answers the question that some may wonder about the whole purpose of this
life. What is it all about? The Apostles before the transfigured Lord in
this Sunday’s Gospel were given the answer, they needed to understand what their
discipleship with Jesus was all about.
Where is this all going - to the cross and the glory of the resurrection
which is the promise of eternal life. Our celebration of this same hope is what
our funeral liturgies point to. Jesus was transfigured before the three select
to give them hope for the future as a share in the victory of Christ.
Last Sunday our Gospel took us into the desert with Jesus
where he confronted the power of evil face to face and resisted that dark power
thereby establishing the ultimate purpose of his mission; to reclaim his
creation and rescue us from sin and death. To conquer sin and death on behalf
of all humanity.
This Sunday, we find ourselves on a mountain top. A very different scene takes place as Christ
is transfigured, significantly changed in appearance before the eyes of three
select disciples.
Here he reveals his divinity and his link to the law and
the prophets which foretold of the coming of the Savior. 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 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.
To bless and to be a blessing in this context is a promise of partnership, a
friendship with God That blessing we see fulfilled in Jesus and he confirms
this before his three disciples.
On that mountain we may say that Peter, James and John
were fortunate or blessed to be there. St.
Thomas Aquinas put it this way:
Peter was the one who loved Jesus the most. John was the
one who Jesus loved the most, and James would be the first among them to give
his life for Christ. It indeed makes sense.
But they also would provide a leadership role in the early Church and
John would be the one to care for the mother of Jesus after his death and
resurrection.
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 and the divine connection with Old and New Testaments that Christ
fulfilled in his mission.
This second Sunday of our Lenten journey brings us face
to face with a moment to listen. That
is, Jesus is not only a 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?
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.
Add more silence in your life this Lent. Create an
atmosphere which is less distracting and more attentive to God’s presence 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. 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.
--------------------------------------------------------------
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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