The Transfiguration!

 

Second Sunday of Lent

Year B

Genesis 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18; Psalm 116:10, 15-19; Romans 8:31-34; Mark 9:2-10

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.  And he was transfigured before them.
Mark 9:2

Every year the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Lent is about the Transfiguration of Jesus.  Why has the Church chosen this event to showcase at this particular juncture of the liturgical year?  Some say it is because the Transfiguration took place at this time- about 40 days before Good Friday.  Others think it is a foretaste of the Resurrection intended to provide comfort and hope to the disciples as the time for our Lord’s death was drawing near.  I think there’s probably something in all of that.  But there’s something else I see as well that makes me think this reading is very providentially placed.

Let’s consider the Transfiguration.  What’s happening?  Jesus takes His inner circle- Peter, James, and John, up on a high mountain by themselves.  No one else is with them.  Suddenly Jesus appears in radiant white clothing.  Along with him appear Moses and Elijah who converse with Him.  Awed by this unprecedented and amazing sight, Peter offers to worship… all three.  Keep in mind, this is the man who has just confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God.  But here he all but loses his mind.  That’s when the voice of the Father is heard from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him.”  And then there is only Jesus.  The other heavenly messengers have vanished.  It’s at this point that Jesus charges them not to tell anyone what they have seen until He has been raised from the dead.  Naturally, the disciples don’t understand that reference and wonder what it means.

That’s the story.  But why?  What is happening?

For a moment heaven comes down to earth.  The privileged inner circle of disciples are blessed to see our Lord both in the glory which He had from eternity past as well as that which is yet to come.  Nowhere could the teaching of the communion of saints be clearer as the disciples yet on earth are privileged to hear part of the heavenly conversation between two of the great saints of the Old Testament and our Lord.  Ironically, Peter’s reaction is what people suspect Catholics are doing when we pray to saints.  However, our teaching is informed by this event that while the saints are alive in heaven they are merely human and not deserving of the worship which is reserved for God alone.  In this way Christ’s deity is revealed.

Whatever Peter, James, and John thought about the entire event at that moment, it couldn’t help but seal in them the vital truth that Peter had previously confessed- that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

I would like to propose that nothing actually happened to Jesus in this event.  He was always just as much divine as He was in that moment.  But in that moment His disciples were allowed to see it.  Jesus was transfigured- meaning He appeared momentarily in His glory.  But it was the disciples who were intended to be transformed as a result.  Think about it, if they had prayerfully pondered what they had experienced they could never have been so shaken by the events that were shortly to transpire.  I believe this was our Lord’s intent.  But, of course, He also knew how they would react.

This brings a couple of realities to mind that I think are pertinent to the matter at hand.

Our Lord has graciously given us His presence in the Holy Eucharist.  However, we are in need of having eyes of faith to see it.  It’s an objective reality, but it only can be seen by those with faith.  So what do we see?

What we should see is a Man crucified, tattered and torn to shreds, writhing in agony as He gasps out His final breaths on a cruel cross.  And why?  For love of us!  Is that what we see?  Too often I hear us speak of the presence of the Lord in the Eucharist in sentimental terms.  “Oh, isn’t it so wonderful?  Isn’t it so peaceful?”  Could we say such things while beholding our crucified Lord?  And yet, that is what is before us. 

The same thing happens at Mass.  Why don’t we spice up the music or make this a bit more entertaining like the Protestant services?  Because we are being brought before our crucified Lord.  It’s not a “hand-clappy” kind of thing.  Too often, we want to make this about a table fellowship as if we’re attending a spiritual pot luck.  No, that’s not what’s happening.  This is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  Solemnity and sobriety are what is appropriate.

Now, I have painted this in somewhat narrow terms.  This isn’t the only sense in which our Lord is present to us in the Eucharist.  Countless saints through the ages have testified to the power and, yes, the comfort they have experienced in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.  It need not be seen exclusively in such stark terms.  Nevertheless, that is what it is at its root and we are in need of such reminders from time to time lest we become too familiar with what is before us and then begin to become indifferent about it.

I propose, then, that each time we are before the Blessed Sacrament we are experiencing a personal Transfiguration.  If we have eyes of faith to see it our experience with our Lord can be just as powerful as that of the disciples on the mountain.  However, what will we do with that experience?  Will it have enough of an impact to take us through the horror of the crosses that God brings into our lives?

And that leads me to the second sense in which I want to consider the Transfiguration.  Our encounter with the Transfigured Lord is intended to transform us into Him.  Our union with Him makes us more like Him.  Therefore, we should ask the question: can the world around me see the Transfigured Christ within me?  In part, this will depend on whether or not those around us have eyes of faith; if they are seeking for God.  But it also calls us to remember that we are the means through which Christ now makes Himself known to the world.  Let us prayerfully consider the ways that Christ, who is always with us and in us, can be transfigured so as to be seen by those who are searching for Him.

One final thought- this Transfiguration is intended to encourage us in our Lenten journey as well.  While we may experience discomfort in our sacrifices we are in need of being reminded that the Transfigured Lord is with us in this journey.  If we persevere, we will come out on the other side into Easter and we will be made a little more like Him.  If we continue in the lessons learned during Lent we continue forward into a renewed Easter that lasts the rest of our lives.  Therefore, do not be discouraged at the outset of our journey… even if you have already failed in some of your intentions.  The road is still before us.  Get back up and let’s pick up our cross and continue to follow Jesus.  It leads into the glory of heaven, to the company of saints, and the embrace of the Father!

Lent and Baptism

 

First Sunday of Lent

Year B

Genesis 9:8-15; Psalm 25:4-9; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15

Baptism … saves you now.
1 Peter 3:21

Do the readings for today seem a bit odd?  First we read about the covenant God made with Noah after the flood.  Then we read a cryptic passage from St. Peter about the souls in prison and the efficacy of Baptism.  Finally, we come to the Gospel where we expect to hear more about our Lord’s temptation in the desert, but that scene is barely scanned before we have our Lord preaching His first sermon.  What is going on?

First of all, let me say that we typically read about our Lord’s temptations on this First Sunday of Lent.  However, in the scheme of the Lectionary- which provides the readings for Mass- we focus on St. Mark’s Gospel in Year B.  That Gospel does not have a detailed account of our Lord’s temptation as that found in either St. Matthew or St. Luke.  Therefore, this is all there is.  But the Church in her wisdom has given us another insight into the ethos of this season we now call Lent.  Let’s explore.

It doesn’t require much investigation to discover that what the readings are keying on is the topic of Baptism.  Why is Baptism in view on the First Sunday of Lent?  Let me borrow from one of my favorite Church Fathers to help answer that question.

St. Justin Martyr was a convert to the Faith from paganism in the second century.  He was a philosopher.  But in his pursuit of truth he encountered the Christians and when he heard of Jesus he knew he had found that for which he had always been searching.  St. Justin recounts for us a part of the custom of the Church of his day regarding Baptism: “As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them,” [First Apology ch. 61].  St. Justin tells us that entrance into the Church was no mere formality.  There was a period of instruction and trial.  One needed not only to profess the faith, but demonstrate that they were living it.  Only then could they be baptized.  But there was a period of prayer and fasting that preceded it.  That period was likely only a couple of days back then.  But note that the entire church joined with those preparing for Baptism in their fasting.  This is the basis for what we now call Lent.

Lent is the preparation period for Easter.  But more specifically, it is the time of prayer, fasting, and preparation for those who are to be baptized and receive their initial sacraments.  Our praying and fasting should, in great part, be connected to being in solidarity with those preparing for entrance into the Church.  Therefore, today’s readings have Baptism in view to direct our attention to the fact that this is what our Lenten disciplines are all about.  But then this raises the question: why is Baptism so important?  What’s all the fuss about anyway?

Let’s take our first reading as a starting point.  We come in at the end of the story about the great flood that destroyed all life on earth except the 8 people and the animals in the ark.  The church, in its mystical tradition, has always seen this story as being about Baptism.  Those who were saved were those in the ark- those who believed God and obeyed Him.  The ark is seen as a type of the Church- it is the means Christ has given for the salvation of the world.  Through the Church the message of salvation is preached and the sacraments are administered.  Those in the ark were saved through water.  Water drowned and destroyed the ungodly elements and left only those in the ark.  In the same way our sins are drowned and destroyed in Baptism. 

St. Peter says that Baptism now saves us.  He goes on to say that it is not merely getting wet that matters, but rather that the interior disposition is transformed as intended.  But this all happens in Baptism.  Baptism does what it symbolizes; it washes, it renews, it brings new birth.  In Baptism our old life of sin is buried and we begin a new life in Christ.  We issue forth from the font as brand new babes in Christ, even if we were a lot older at the time.

It is with all this in mind that we come to the Gospel where we hear our Lord call to us all, “This is the time of fulfillment.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  Lent forms the time for repentance; the time to deal with sin and take the proper steps to put sin away out of our lives.  Easter will begin the time of faith; where those newborn in Baptism will begin their life of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  This is the time of fulfillment!

With all this in mind, what should we be doing during this holy season of Lent? 

First, let us recall our own Baptism and the vows we made, or that were made on our behalf.  We promised to renounce Satan, and all his works, which are all manner of sin, and all his empty promises, or the many ways that Satan makes sin look alluring.  We promised to turn our back on all those things.  Are we keeping these vows?  Are we avoiding all sin, and even the near occasion of sin?  Are we prone to take another drink, another look, or anything else that can potentially draw us back into the world of sin from which we were saved?  “Remember Lot’s wife,” our Lord told us.  “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven.” 

Then we vowed to believe in God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Holy, Catholic Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.  Are we living in communion with God according to the teaching of His Church in view of death, judgment, and eternity?

Second, let’s renew our baptismal vows in heart.  Let us offer penance for our failures and thanksgiving for our victories. Allow this Lenten season to “reboot” you to what it was you were from the beginning- from Baptism.

Third, offer prayers and sacrifices for those preparing for their Easter sacraments.  Keep them front and center in your attention.

Finally, draw near to God.  What does He have for you in this 40 day journey?  Get alone with Him and ask Him that question.  Then listen for His answer. 

The Exam

 

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year B

Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46; Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 11; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45

He shall be brought to… the priest.
Leviticus 13:2

Can there be any doubt as to why the Law was completely incapable of being the means of salvation in light of today’s first reading?  Think about it- put yourself in the place of a leper in that time.  You had to be physically ostracized while you were slowly and painfully dying.  If you were in public you had to cry out, “Unclean, unclean,” so that others could get away from you.  Perhaps some may see parallels to the current situation, but it was so much worse than that.  What’s more, this all came about because God said it should be done this way.  A leper in the Old Testament very much felt the abandonment of both people and God.

Why was it so?  Perhaps because of the very primitive understanding of medicine and that the only way to keep such a plague from wiping out the entire race was by such extreme means.  But one begins to sense something else taking place as well.  It isn’t hard to see that leprosy stands in for sin.  What leprosy does to the person, or the community, physically sin does spiritually.

Now flash forward to today’s Gospel reading.  Jesus encounters a leper.  Rather than follow protocol, the leper seeks out Jesus because he believes Jesus can heal him.  He’s right.  But watch the way that Jesus chooses to heal him.  Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, 
touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.”  Did you see it?  The leper was supposed to avoid touching anyone or allowing himself to be touched.  The Law stated that anyone touched by someone or something unclean became unclean themselves.  But in this case it’s reversed.  Rather than Jesus becoming unclean the man becomes clean. 

But note that in both Leviticus and the Gospel the process culminates with a visit to the priest.  It was the priest who was to examine the individual to declare him either unclean or clean.  Now, here’s the interesting part.  The Law was specific about the process for declaring someone unclean.  This happened frequently.  It was equally clear about the process for declaring someone clean.  We don’t have any recorded cases of this actually happening.  It may have.  But it would have been rare.  Only in this case with Jesus would the priest actually be seeing a time when he could declare someone who was unclean to be clean.  God made provision in the Law for something that would not happen for thousands of years until Jesus came.

It’s this idea of going to see the priest that I want to key in on.  Keeping in mind that in the Bible leprosy stands in for sin, the application should be obvious.  We are in need of regularly seeking out our priests to be examined so that we can be made clean.  This is what the Church offers us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or what is more popularly known as Confession.

The Catholic Church teaches that the priest is made in persona Christi- in the person of Christ- at his ordination.  As such, he carries Christ’s authority when he does certain things such as say the words of institution at Mass, thus bringing about the Body and Blood of Christ, as well as announcing the forgiveness of our sins in confession.  When we go to tell the priest our sins we are telling Jesus.  When the priest gives us counsel we should receive it as from Jesus.  And when he pronounces our sins are forgiven Jesus is saying that through him. 

For confession to be all it is intended to be the person must take some time to prayerfully examine himself to see where he has sinned.  Then he must bare his soul to the priest who is like a spiritual physician and will give him some thoughts and advice to help in his ongoing battle with sin.  But such an examination need not wait until we are receiving the sacrament.

St. Ignatius of Loyola had as a key part of the spirituality he taught the regular, daily, examination of one’s own soul.  Each night one lays himself bare before God to evaluate where he experienced God’s grace and triumphed, or where he failed and fell into sin.  Then he confesses his sins to God and asks for the mercy of forgiveness and the grace to do better the next day.  This daily examination kept one close to God and enabled him to find victory over sin. 

Let’s return to the Gospel.  Jesus tells the man healed of leprosy to go show himself to the priest.  What’s ironic is that he has already done so since Jesus is the great High Priest.  While going to a priest in confession is helpful, and even necessary in some cases, we have the opportunity to go to Jesus each day and allow Him to examine us so that we can be made clean.  The problem is that we too often want to hide our sins… as if our Lord does not already know all about them.  We are only fooling ourselves; and we do so to our own detriment.

Socrates is credited with saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”  We would heartily agree.  God does not intend that we should do so.  Rather, He invites us to come to Him often so that we may be examined and we may be healed.

Dear friends, we are on the cusp of Lent when our minds naturally turn to such things.  Why wait?  Let us be diligent today to find a place where we may lay ourselves bare before our great High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ.  There, let us tell Him all.  He is willing that we should be clean.  Let Him touch you… and be made whole.

The Heart of God

 

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year B

Job 7:1-4, 6-7; Psalm 147:1-6; 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23; Mark 1:29-39

“Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.  For this purpose have I come.”
Mark 1:38

Come with me on a day in the life of Jesus as recorded by St. Mark.  The day in question is a Sabbath.  It begins in Mark 1:21, from last weekend’s Gospel reading.  Jesus enters a town called Capernaum.  It is the hometown of Peter and Andrew.  While they are at the synagogue a man who is demon-possessed begins to cry out.  Jesus rebukes the demon and delivers the man.  Then they leave the synagogue and go to Peter’s house where Jesus heals his mother-in-law of a fever.  Word gets out and they bring all kinds of people who are ill and demon-possessed and Jesus heals the sick and drives out the demons.  This must have taken a good portion of the night.  So after a full day of ministry Jesus finally gets some rest.  Does He sleep in the next day?  No.  He rises early and goes out to a solitary place in order to pray.

Jesus must have been exhausted, yet he rises a great while before dawn without an alarm clock.  How did He do it?  Why did He do it?  And what can we learn from it?

First, how did He do it?  The only reasonable answer is that He simply did what He was accustomed to do.  Jesus must have had a long standing habit of rising very early in the morning to pray.  It makes sense.  If He spent His adult years until roughly 30 years old as a carpenter then the early morning hours before dawn would be one of the only times He could count on the peace and quiet necessary to have deep, unbroken communion with His Father.  If that’s true then Jesus simply did what He had always been doing. 

Second, why did He do it?  He did it because this was His favorite part of the day.  He didn’t live to be adored by the crowds.  He didn’t relish the awesome displays of His divine power.  He eagerly anticipated every moment He had to commune with the Father.  Remember how hard it was to sleep on Christmas Eve.  Even if you went to Midnight Mass and you were so tired you couldn’t even remember going to bed, yet you woke eagerly in the morning because you anticipated the gifts you were going to receive on Christmas morning.  I believe it was something similar that got Jesus up each morning.  He couldn’t wait to see what His Father had for Him on that day.

What do we learn from it?  We learn the priority of seeking God.  Furthermore, we begin to see what it is to seek the heart of God.  If you don’t already have a consistent habit of rising early for prayer, this would be a great time to start.  Why early morning?  Because you’re fresh and at your best.  Because no one is likely to call or text.  It offers the best opportunity to quiet yourself and plunge deep into the abyss of the loving heart of God.  Sounds great in theory, you say, but what if we’re not used to getting up early?  Ah, there’s a simple solution to this problem, known to every military drill sergeant: force yourself to get up at the hour desired, no matter how early.  By the end of the day you will be plenty tired and fall asleep.  Then the new pattern takes root.

To seek God first thing in the morning says nothing is more important.  It is a great way to put things in perspective.  If the day holds unpleasant surprises you are already fortified with the grace gained from prayer rather than scrambling to find some on the fly.  If you wait until the middle of the day it will be too difficult to extricate yourself from the day’s business.  And if you wait until the end of the day you are normally too tired.  Jesus prayed at both the beginning and the end of the day.  While that would be a great habit, beginning with prayer at the opening of the day is a good place to start.

But that’s not all we can learn from this Gospel.  When the disciples go to look for Jesus and finally find Him, He offers this statement: “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.  For this purpose have I come.”  Jesus demonstrates that someone who routinely seeks the heart of God demonstrates the heart of God to others.  There’s a restless, chaotic pace to St. Mark’s Gospel.  He reveals Jesus as someone constantly on the go.  But why?  Not because He is a “Type A” personality, but because there are more people who need what only He can offer.

Did you notice how often St. Mark mentioned the demon-possessed in this one day?  Jesus encounters a demoniac at the synagogue [vv. 23-26].  He delivered numerous people from demons that arrived at Peter’s house [v. 34].  And He goes on to the other towns where He drives out demons in those areas as well [v. 39].  Why does Jesus heal the sick and drive out demons?  Because He is demonstrating the Gospel He is preaching.  Jesus doesn’t just talk a good game.  He backs it up.  The Gospel is good news because we can be set free from sin.  And to prove it we see Jesus taking on the effects of sin- sickness and demonic activity.

As members of His body we have a vital role to play in our world today.  We are charged with bringing His Gospel to the nations.  It’s a daunting, and quite honestly, impossible task.  However, that is why we need to grasp the first part.  In prayer we seek and apprehend the heart of God.  And from prayer we bring the heart of God into this world.  If there’s no prayer, there’s no ministry.  We’re just a faint echo of the voice of God, or worse, we become an obnoxious noise.  Prayer is what makes the difference.  Daily moments spent in His presence, being filled with His grace transform our meager efforts into miraculous moments.  The sick are healed, the oppressed are set free, and the sinner is saved and made fit for the kingdom of heaven.

I’m tired of watching the devil win the battles.  He only wins by default- when we don’t show up!  Once we’re immersed in Christ- which happens through daily, consistent prayer- there’s nothing that can stop us. 

No matter how crazy your life is right now I invite you to find this place of prayer- this desert place where we encounter the Father’s heart.  It was vital for Jesus.  It’s imperative for us.  Here, the craziness stops and the peace of God reigns supreme. 

Have you found this place?  Let’s go and seek Him there.  And when we’ve been there, let’s listen for the places He wants to send us… to bring His heart into the world!