Year B / Lent / 2nd Sunday
Readings: Genesis 22.1-2, 91, 10-13, 15-18 / Psalm 116.10, 15, 16-17, 18-19 (R/v 116.9) / Romans 8.31b-34 / Mark 9.2-10
Have you had an “A-ha” moment? That moment when what you saw, heard or experienced changed your outlook on life or faith? That life-changing moment that altered your sense of identity and purpose?
The “A-ha” moment in Francis of Assisi’s life was when he encountered a leper whom he reached out to in compassion. In this moment, he realized that Jesus was calling him to serve the poor, and not to be rich like his father, a merchant of fine textiles.
The “A-ha” moment in Ignatius of Loyola’s life was when he reflected on the saints as he recuperated from a cannonball injury. In this moment, he realized that Jesus was calling him to be God’s solider to save souls, and not one to win wars for a Spanish duke.
What about you? Can you remember an “A-ha” moment when Jesus met you, and called you to more Christ-like action?
Our gospel story on this 2nd Sunday of Lent is about an “A-ha” moment in the life of the disciples.
We are all familiar with the story of the Transfiguration: Jesus takes Peter, James and John up the mountain; they see Jesus transfigured; they observe him conversing with Moses and Elijah; Peter offers to build them tents; and they hear God’s voice. Yes, in this moment, Jesus’ three disciples witness his transfiguration.
More significantly, these disciples themselves undergo a transfiguration. They experience a change within themselves that enables them to hear God's voice announcing Jesus' identity as God’s ''beloved Son." Their own transfiguration also allows them to hear more clearly the terms of their own discipleship; God asks them to "listen to Jesus."
Their “A-ha” moment is about glimpsing the divine—that God is indeed with them—and learning the truth about being human—that in Jesus they are God’s chosen.
Today, we are not just reading about the Transfiguration. We experiencing the scene unfolding before us; we are witnessing Jesus’ being transfigured; we are hearing God’s delight in his Son and God’s command that we listen to him. Yes, you and I are part of this moment; we are the silent, unmentioned participants in the Transfiguration. And like the disciples, we should be letting God transfigure us in this moment. But are we?
This is the question we must ask ourselves in Lent because Lent is the time for transformation. To answer it, we need to pause and look honestly at the state of our Christian discipleship. How Christ-like is our living and our loving, our praying and our playing, our being in friendship with God and in relationship with one another? If we are honest, I think we will both confess that we can do better.
If the grace of Lent is the promise of being transformed and so transfigured, it calls us to enter more fully into this liturgical moment. Like the Transfiguration called the disciples, so Lent calls us into it not as a calendar time of 40 days but as God’s time to redeem and renew us.
The right disposition to enter Lent then cannot be that which we’ve come to associate with the phrase “carpe diem” (seize the day). All too often we think of Lent as that time we must seize for our conversion. But what use is this attitude if we don't have the deeper disposition to let God change us?
This deeper disposition is described by the main character at the end of Richard Linklater's film, Boyhood: it is “to let the day seize us, and move us on its ebb and flow.” I see Peter, James and John in today’s gospel story having and practicing this disposition in their lives: they opened themselves to Jesus’ Transfiguration and allowed God to lead them into it and, more importantly, into their own transfiguration. This is the kind of disposition we need to let God transfigure us.
But are you and I open to this moment of Lent and God's plan to transfigure us? Or, are we insisting that we alone must take charge of Lent, and control and manipulate how it must fit our plans and our goals?
If we want to let God transfigure us, then, we have to seriously consider our response to the conversion Lent beckons us to.
In last Sunday’s gospel story, Jesus proclaimed that the time of fulfillment is now. Our present time can be one of conversion and fulfilment if we understand that being repentant is about opening ourselves up to God who wishes to set our lives right again. But to open ourselves to God we need honesty to identify the necessary changes we must make, so that we can better cooperate with God’s plan to make us better disciples. I believe this can begin when we say yes to God’s command to “listen to Jesus.” What changes then must you and I make this Lent to truly listen to Jesus?
Becoming more humble is one way. In our first reading, Abraham’s humility to listen to and obey God’s command transfigures his life. It does not lead to Isaac’s death in Abraham’s life but to the perpetuity of life for him through countless descendants.
Today, we are being called to humble ourselves so that we can really listen to Jesus who shows us how to do God’s will, not just for ourselves but also for the community we live in and serve
And why should we bother to listen to Jesus? Because God wants to bless us through Jesus. This blessing will transfigure us more and more into the fullness of God’s image and likeness that Jesus is. Christian discipleship is about growing into Christ-like fullness
And listening to Jesus in humility is the way God instructs us on how best we can be saved, and so realize our truest identity as God’s own. This is why God taught the disciples at the Transfiguration to listen to Jesus.
You and I know that the pressures of life will often keep us from taking the time to stop and listen—to each other, to ourselves, and to God. We are so distracted by so many things in our lives. Yet Lent offers us time to stop and listen to God. It invites us into possibility of being caught up in an “A-ha” moment, or two, each day, and in them, of finding God instructing us to live better and holier lives.
It would be good for us then as each Lenten day closes to name these moments, and to recall God’s instruction in them. And let us also give thanks for them. Why? Because these “A-ha” moments are God’s ways of transfiguring us to better celebrate the coming Easter joy.
My sisters and brothers, dare we miss the goodness of these “A-ha” moments this Lent?
This homily was first preached in 2015 at St Ignatius Church, Singapore
photo: littlemissmomma.com (internet)
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