Second Sunday of Lent
Throughout Lent, we see overarching themes as we enter into this holy season. Certainly we see mortification and the denial of the body as a way to focus on the higher, spiritual realities. We are also, certainly, meditating on the Passion of our Lord, and preparing for His ultimate sacrifice which we celebrate during the Sacred Triduum. And that Passion leads to the Resurrection, as we see in the Transfiguration today. Our Lord had told the Apostles about His impending Passion, and then He takes Peter, James, and John, and leads them up Mount Tabor, and is transfigured before them, to show that what would happen after He suffered crucifixion.
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| Church of the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor |
But all of the Gospels passages for this sacred time, both in the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form, also help us to understand who Jesus is. The first two Sundays of Lent find the Gospel readings in both forms of the Roman Rite the same: the temptation of our Lord, and His Transfiguration. After that, the Gospel selections take different paths. In the Ordinary Form, since this is Year A in the Cycle of Sunday readings, we hear the long Gospels about the Samaritan woman at the well (3rd Sunday of Lent); the man born blind (4th Sunday of Lent); and the raising of Lazarus (5th Sunday of Lent). In the Extraordinary Form, where we hear the same readings each year, the passages are: the casting out of demons, and the accusation that our Lord does so by the power of demons (3rd Sunday in Lent); the multiplication of the loaves from John 6 (4th Sunday in Lent); and our Lord telling the Pharisees that He is greater than Abraham (Passion Sunday). No matter which Form of Mass we attend, the readings help us to know our Lord better as He reveals Himself.
The identity of Christ is no small matter and is perfect for meditation during Lent. The better we know Christ, we better know our salvation. And, since we are members of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, the better we know Christ, the better we understand what is in store for us if we stay faithful to Him.
On the one hand we can talk about who our Lord is objectively, as in facts about Him. The Gospels show us that He is the Son of God, who has been tempted like us, but has not sinned (first Sunday of Lent). He is also co-equal with the Father, and sharing in His glory, the God to whom all the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah) point (second Sunday of Lent). The Savior is the one who brings down the power and reign of Satan (third Sunday of Lent, EF), and does so by convicting us of sin so that we can be healed and receive the waters of Divine Mercy (third Sunday of Lent, OF). Christ opens our eyes to recognize who He is (fourth Sunday of Lent, OF), and feeds us with miraculous bread, going beyond what any other prophet had done (fourth Sunday of Lent, EF). Christ is the Resurrection and the Life, who grants eternal life to those who believe in Him (fifth Sunday of Lent), whose day Abraham rejoiced to see (Passion Sunday).
But knowing our Lord is more than simply knowing facts about Him. Knowing Christ means taking all those facts that I just laid out, the facts that we hear from the Gospel, and making a choice about who He is to me. Even the demons knew facts about Christ, and could probably confess more Trinitarian theology than any of us could. But they do not have a relationship with Christ; they do not want Him involved in their lives; they do not love Him.
Following Christ as a disciple means growing in our love of Him. Lent offers us the opportunity to recommit ourselves to acting like He did in our daily lives. Do we actively fight temptations and do our best not to give in to the lies of the devil? Does our glory come from God, or do we seek to glorify ourselves with our own greatness, that does not even come close to shining as brightly as the glory that God desires for us? How do we fill that thirst that we have for God? Are we active in cooperating with Christ to tear down the kingdom of the prince of this world and build up the Kingdom of God? Do we ourselves recognize the ways we want to close our eyes to God’s goodness, and help to open others’ eyes to the truth of the Gospel? Do we feed on the Living Bread come down from heaven, or do we try to fill our stomachs with food that fails to satisfy and is never enough? Are we willing to let Christ raise us to new life, or do we treat Him as just another moral teacher, a philosopher, who had some good teachings, but is like all other teachers and philosophers who came before Him?
Our reading of the Gospels and our participation in this Mass is not simply about gathering facts and putting time in with God. When we read the Sacred Scriptures, guided by the teachings of the Church, God wants us to understand how we are to find our happiness by putting the old Adam, the one who chose disobedience to God, to death, and rising to life with the new Adam, Christ, who was obedient even to the point of death, death on a cross. As we worship God in the Mass, God does not only want our praise from our lips. He gives us the Eucharist, the miraculous Bread from heaven, so that our lives can be transformed and we can have a foretaste within us of the glory to be revealed at the end of time. God wants us to utilize His presence within us to be more like Him, and to share that presence of Christ when we interact with others. When family members, friends, co-workers, and others interact with us, do they sense Christ and see, even in small ways, His glory shining through us? Are they greeted with the love that any person would desire to receive from God, and then invited to participate in the truth that is also God?
We are still early in Lent. There is still time to get to know God better, and to open ourselves to the grace of God which makes deep changes possible in our lives so that we live a life like Christ’s. Don’t only give up stuff this Lent. Don’t only know the facts about the great gift of salvation God gave us in dying for us. Allow what Christ did to become the pattern of your own life, and grow in your friendship with Him.