Second Sunday of Lent

It’s daylight savings time. Someone suggested it would be more popular if we moved clocks ahead at 2 p.m. on Monday, with people at work. Think about it.

Thursday is St. Patrick’s Day. Humor, for the Irish, is essential. Yes, we sometimes have to take ourselves seriously, but not always.  March 17 might be a good day to renew our own sense of humor.

You may have heard the following prayer advice: When I was young, my prayer was, “Lord, give me the energy to change the world.”  As I approached middle age, it became, “Lord, help me change all the people I meet.” Now that I am old and my days numbered, I see how foolish I have been. My prayer now is: “Lord, give me the grace to change myself into the best person I can be.”

That is a good Lenten prayer. Lent calls for a change within, with God's grace: letting the grace of God transform us into a more God-centered, other-centered life of love, forgiveness and peacemaking.

Last Sunday, we were in the wilderness with Jesus and the tempter. This Sunday we're on a mountaintop, contemplating the transfigured Jesus.

The word of God first takes us back almost four thousand years. Abraham hears the call of God. And because he was a man of faith, Abraham set out for an unknown land. I’m sure he was anxious, not sure how things would turn out. And because Abraham trusted completely in God, God guarantees that he would prosper by means of a symbolic covenant.

God’s word speaks to us here and now, calling us to be men and women of faith. Remember the words, “do not be afraid. I am with you always.”

 Paul, in his letter to the Christian community in Philippi in Greece, proclaims that our citizenship is in heaven. Live as citizens of heaven, so that God may glorify us.

 In the Gospel, the disciples experienced at Mount Tabor the unique and awesome presence of God in Jesus of Nazareth. As the scriptures describe this, the face of Jesus became as dazzling as the sun, his clothes bright as the white cloth given to us in baptism. The disciples saw a vision of the “glorious” Jesus beyond the earthly Jesus they knew in their everyday lives. They saw the face of God in their midst: the Father’s beloved Son.

 We, too, like those three disciples, must be awake to see God's presence all around us, especially in our fellow human beings.

Who is this Jesus, the face of God in our midst? The early Christian community saw Jesus as the fulfillment of all their hopes. But the more they reflected, the more they saw him as the foundation of their hopes as well, the eternal Word that the Gospel according to John captures so magnificently and so poetically, “In the beginning was the Word …” etc.

 Jesus was a real historical person, like ourselves. He experienced fatigue, hunger, joy, friendship, disappointment, loneliness, and change, as we do.

But he was more than human. He had a unique relationship to the God of ancient Israel: he was one with God. He was a teacher, a prophet who proclaimed the kingdom of God was breaking into our midst. He worked signs and wonders, healings which heralded the ultimate triumph of good over evil. And through his life, death, and resurrection, he opened to us the doors to eternal life with God.

 

         Yes, you and I have a future in the kingdom of God. How? By striving to become faithful disciples of Jesus here and now: living a life of regular prayer; of fasting or doing without attitudes and behaviors that can fracture our relationships with God and one another; and by generously sharing what we have been given, especially with the needy.

Jesus also taught that God is our Father. This is a tremendous reality of our faith. The God who created this magnificent universe became flesh in Jesus and is gloriously alive in our midst by the power of the Spirit—yes, this triune God lives and breathes within us, especially in the sacramental life of the Christian community. One day we shall be like God. The Risen Christ is our prototype.

 As we re-experience Abraham's call to venture into the unknown future, as we reflect upon our citizenship in heaven, and as we meditate upon the transfigured Jesus, may that word of God inspire us to be awake to the presence of God in our daily lives.

May we rededicate ourselves to Jesus the Christ in regular prayer; giving up those negative attitudes and immoral behaviors that destroy relationships; and living a life of generous service to others so that we can participate fully in the kingdom of God--a new heaven and a new earth--forever gloriously alive with the  transfigured Christ and all his angels and saints. Amen.