The Second Sunday in Lent
March 4, 2007
12:45PM Meditation
Luke 9:28-36
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
“But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:20-1). This passage is taken from today’s Epistle from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, and it describes the transformation that will take place in each of us at the Resurrection. The believer can look forward to becoming like Jesus is now, even if for now we struggle and suffer with bodies that are less than perfect.
The connection of today’s Epistle to today’s Gospel is obvious. Jesus went up on the mountain with Peter, James, and John, and he was transfigured before them, so that his countenance was altered and his raiment became a dazzling white. In the Transfiguration Peter, James, and John get a preview of how Jesus will appear after he has been raised from the dead. Indeed, they get a preview of what Jesus will be like for all eternity, along with what God intends for all who are disciples of the Son of God. The Transfiguration is an encouragement, meant to spur on Jesus’ inner circle in the hard times that were to come.
Naturally, Peter misinterprets what’s happening and asks Jesus if he can institutionalize the experience by setting up booths, a sort of shrine, for Moses, Elijah and Jesus. Peter does not see right away that this encouragement that he is given is fleeting. God does not intend this encouragement to be eternal. God intends the Resurrection to be eternal, and the Transfiguration is simply a way to show the disciples what the Resurrection will be like. Up on the mountain, drunk with sleep, Peter has already forgotten that there is a lot of work to do between the Transfiguration and the Resurrection. He has already forgotten that there is much anguish to suffer, a death at the hands of sinners that Jesus must endure.
God gives us these encouragements, too. In our faith journey there are times that we feel like life is one big celebration. If we think back to last year in the aftermath of the Conference we can remember the euphoria that so many people both in and out of the Society felt. Cardinal Dulles had come to Scranton to speak, the Conference had attracted more than double the number of attendees than it had the year before, and Bishop Dougherty had put many of our anxieties to rest by announcing at the Conference Mass that my dossier had finally been sent to Rome. We were flying high and everything felt like it was smooth sailing.
And then the waiting began again. And still we wait. The encouragement that God gave us was followed by hard work and suffering, as together we look forward to receiving the next encouragement. This, my friends, is life, and it is not going to change, until we experience for ourselves the Resurrection, that time of which St. Paul speaks, when the Lord will change our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body. Our suffering will be followed by encouragements, and our encouragements will be followed by suffering.
What we must be careful not to do is follow the example of St. Peter on the mountain. We must not try to prolong the encouragements or avoid the sufferings. When God gives us an encouragement as he gave to Peter, James, and John, we must set about our work with a renewed perspective, a joy that wells up within us and makes our labor lighter. If we try to stay up on the mountain, the work God wants us to do will not get done, and we will thwart God’s purpose in giving us the encouragement.
That is, we must understand our lives to be a progression towards eternal life in heaven with God. And as wonderful as life may be for the moment we must ever remember that to get to heaven Jesus had to pass through Calvary. Before the Resurrection, before the event that the Transfiguration prefigured, there was Christ’s betrayal, his abandonment, his torture, his taunting, his humiliation, his death. If we are to follow Christ to heaven, we have to take the same path he took. There is not another path that does not involve coming off the mountain to face discouragement. Each encouragement makes us stronger and better able to face the discouragements that are sure to follow, until at last we find ourselves face to face with him whose presence will encourage us forever.
This Lent each of us ought to reflect upon our lives, in order to discern those discouragements we are tempted to avoid. What sufferings are we unwilling to endure? What encouragements do we try to prolong? To the degree that we are able to take an account of how much we are like Peter on the mountain, we will be able to become like Peter on the cross, crucified upside down while looking forward to receiving the reward he was first promised at the Transfiguration.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.