That is a good Lenten prayer. As winter changes to spring, Lent calls for a similar change within ourselves: letting the coldness of a self-centered life be transformed into a more God-centered, other-centered life of love, forgiveness and peacemaking.
Last Sunday, we were in the wilderness in the presence of Jesus and the tempter. This Sunday we're on a mountaintop contemplating Jesus and his transfiguration.
But first, the word of God takes us back almost four thousand years to the land we know as Iraq. Abraham hears the call of God. He was an ordinary man with extraordinary faith. Because he trusted God completely, he set out for an unknown land.
Many of us can relate to this. Going to a new place? A new job? You may have been anxious. I’m sure Abraham was. Yet Abraham trusted in God's unconditional love for him. God calls us to be people of faith, to trust God as we journey through happy and disappointing and uncertain days to our heavenly dwelling place.
Paul in his letter to Timothy speaks about God’s tremendous love for us. God is indeed “the tremendous lover,” which is a title of a book. God became one of us in Jesus so that we could become like God. And one day, we shall see God as God really is, face to face. An awesome vision!
That is why Paul urges us to live a holy life now—a life with God in service to one another.
Many of you know of Mother Teresa of Calcutta: a model of persistence in faith and prayer despite human doubts and darkness. She showed that holiness is not a luxury for the few; holiness is meant for all.
One story I shared at our parish bible study: a so-called “untouchable” was alone dying on the sidewalk. The nun went over, put her hands together as in prayer and bowed with the respectful greeting: “Namaste.” She saw the image and glory of God within this emaciated man. And, as the story goes, he looked at her and uttered his dying words: “I lived with animals and now I die with the angels.”
Yes, to see God despite a “distressing disguise” is to live a holy life. Remember, “Let us go forth to love and serve God.”
In the Gospel according to Matthew, the disciples experienced the transfiguration of Jesus; they saw the unique and awesome presence of God in Jesus.
As described, Jesus’s face became as dazzling as the sun, his clothes as white as light, an allusion to the white tunic early Christians wore after they were baptized. The disciples glimpsed the “glorious” Jesus beyond the flesh and blood Jesus they knew. They also saw their own future in the transfigured Jesus.
Jesus lived by faith, completely trusting in his Father's unconditional love for him. That faith made Jesus a transformative person, ushering in the kingdom of God. That faith was tested to the breaking point on the cross. To quote the great twentieth century Catholic theologian Karl Rahner: “Jesus surrendered himself in his death unconditionally to the absolute mystery that he calls his Father, into whose hands he committed his existence when in the night of his death and God-forsakenness he was deprived of everything that is otherwise regarded as the content of a human existence: life, honor, acceptance and so forth.”
Jesus died as he had lived: with faith in his heavenly Father, with hope of life forever. Yes, he died murmuring, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” And in the mystery of death God transfigured Jesus into a new kind of spiritual embodiment.
And just as Jesus became a transformative person in ushering in the kingdom of God, Jesus calls us to become transformative people as well. As co-workers with God, we have to do our best to transform injustice and prejudice into fairness and tolerance; to transform hate into peace, indifference into compassion, sorrow into joy and despair into hope. Yes, we have to transform self-centeredness into other-centeredness so that God, like the risen Christ, can transfigure us into a new spiritual embodiment.
I close with a few rules for success from Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz. He recognized that attitude determines how well one performs any task. Here are a few of his transformative thoughts:
Focus on your character. Be trustworthy. Behave honorably. When you make a mistake, make amends.
Show people you care. Prove it consistently by praising people's efforts. Show your enthusiasm. Both a great attitude and a bad attitude are contagious.
Surround yourself with people who encourage, not discourage. Set the right example. Your hard work can generate the feeling that everyone is in it together.
Know what you want; set goals at every stage in life. Work hard to achieve them. When negative thoughts arise, start thinking, “I can.” It works a lot better than “I can't."
Let this be a prayer for Lent. Just practicing this will make us transformative persons in the lives of people:
Forgiving those we don’t want to forgive;
having compassion;
making peace;
caring for those in need, even though it’s inconvenient;
persevering when we are exhausted;
carrying our crosses when we want to run away from them; and
loving when the last thing we want to do is love.
Amen.
