2nd Sunday: From the desert, to the mountain

 

"This is my beloved Son . . . listen to him"

Matthew 17: 1-9

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030126.cfm

For 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 the preface for Mass)

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: Peter, James and John.

Their reaction is understandable.  Impulsive but sincere Peter blurts out: “Let’s stay here. In fact, we’ll construct three tents for everyone.” Such enthusiasm is admirable, but Peter and the other Apostles are just overwhelmed by what they see.   

Here Jesus 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. But for all it is faith that is the guide for Abram.  It is faith that here is presented as our guide through life as well.  Abram put his trust in God although God revealed very little of what he wanted Abram to do despite the odds that were against both he and Sarah his elderly wife.

On that mountain, for Peter, James and John, it was a call to believe in wht they saw. Jesus knew well the dark days of his passion and death were approaching.  That his trusted men would be faced with shock, disillusion, fear, confusion, and despair.  For the chosen three Apostles, that mountain top experience was meant to strengthen them and to assure them that what may have been seen as a tragic end to a glorious beginning, was not the end at all.  It was the divine stamp of approval on all that Jesus was about to do.  Only by faith could they believe and hold on to that truth.

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. 

The focus was not on them so much as it clearly was on Jesus transfigured 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, then, with a moment of our own faith.  Can I hold on to my belief despite what may appear before me as a life of doubt? 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 fulfilment 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 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. As St. Paul reminded us: “we walk by faith and not by sight.” (2 Cor 5:7)

At this time in Lent, let’s maybe pause for a moment.  Ask yourself how things are for you in your spiritual life. Do I still talk too much in prayer before God?  Can I take some time and add more silence in my life, turn to the Lord in a time of prayer, ask him to reveal himself to you, and to simply listen to his response.  Do I hear what the Lord is calling me to at this time in my life? 

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.