Our Time to Shine

Second Sunday of Lent

The most recent Marvel movie that debuted is “Captain Marvel.”  The previews didn’t really excite me, but on a Sunday afternoon I had some free time and decided to catch the movie.  I have to say, I was really impressed with the movie, both as something enjoyable, and as a good part of the Marvel universe, especially with the upcoming late-April release of the latest Avengers film.

I don’t want to give away the movie, but like many of the first movies of a superhero (or in this case, superheroine) it explains Carol Danvers’ history and identity, as well as her becoming who she truly is meant to be.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus shows us a glimpse of what we’re supposed to be.  In the midst of the impending Passion of our Lord (in the Gospel according to Luke, the Transfiguration happens after the first prediction of Jesus’ Passion, and right before Jesus sets out for Jerusalem to undergo His Passion), Jesus gives Peter, James, and John a glimpse of what will happen after Jesus’ Passion and Death.  The Gospel describes Jesus as with “dazzling white” clothing and His face changed in appearance.  We often depict Jesus as glowing in His Transfiguration.  But what it comes down to is that Jesus shows His special apostles a prefigurement of His glorified body, and Jesus speaks with Moses and Elijah about “his exodus,” Jesus leading His people from slavery to freedom.

We were created for that glory that Jesus shows us in the Transfiguration.  We were created to communion with the saints in heaven as we make our way on our pilgrimage on earth.  We were made for heaven; that is the goal of every human life.

When we depict saints artistically or for sacred worship, we do so with a glorified body, and with a halo.  Good liturgical depictions of the saints may include the instruments of their life or even their death, but it does so in a way that shows that they are at peace.  We also try to make it look like the eternal light of heaven, that place where there is no night because the Lamb is the light and He is never hidden.  If you look at our icons, we have gold leaf for their halos as a way of reflecting and showing off the light.  And their faces are definitely peaceful, not affected by the passions or by even the external events of the world, but simply living the peace of Christ.

But that reality is not only for those in heaven.  If we are living the life of Christ, if we are putting on Christ and living as He desires, then we, too, can shine here on earth.  About certain holy men and women on earth, some have even mentioned that they seemed to shine.  Moses’ face shone after every encounter with God, as we read in the Old Testament.  

And if we shine more and more as we live the heavenly life, then we become more dull the more we immerse ourselves in our earthly life.  St. Paul speaks about that in our second reading.  He talks about those whose “end is destruction.  Their god is their stomach; their glory is in their ‘shame.’  Their minds are occupied with earthly things.”  The more that we focus, instead, on the heavenly life, the more Jesus “will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body.”  The more that we focus on our earthly life, the more we resist that transformation that Jesus shows us in the Transfiguration.

Now, you might be thinking that you have to focus on our earthly life because you live an earthly life.  You, like I, have to pay bills, buy food, travel back and forth, pay mortgages or rent, etc.  But that’s not what I mean by the earthly life.  Earthly life is when we focus on our fallen and base desires.  When we are lustful; when we are greedy; when we make money or power or fame a god; when we lie; when we gossip.  When we do those things, we say no to the divine light that wants to change us, wants to transfigure us.  When we focus on prayer, on generosity, on helping our neighbors, on the common good, even while we are working or vacationing, then we allow that light to penetrate into the very fabric of our life and make us shine with the light of the eternal sun that never sets in heaven.  When we live the heavenly life, we can truly say that the “Lord is my light.”  

I don’t know about you, but I feel like our world is darker now than it was even not that long ago when I was growing up.  And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that since that time, people’s participation in the faith has decreased greatly.  Our world is darker because it is not illuminated by as many men and women striving for holiness, striving to let the light of the Lord shine through them.  And even some of those who do attend Mass do not have their hearts set on the Lord, but are living a double life where greed and power and lust are the happy focus of their life for six and a half days of the week, and the Lord is the focus for one hour on Sunday.  The light will not shine through those people, either.   Instead, by the grace of God, we need to allow God to change us, to forgive us through the Sacrament of Penance when we fall, and to transfigure us with His light.  

Our identity is not in our base desires.  Perhaps you’re still discovering the “superhero” that God is calling you to be.  Be that superhero of the faith.  Be that saint, even in your daily life.  Let God transfigure you to let His light shine through you.

Icons of the Trinity

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

I invite you to look at the two icons to my right and my left for a second.  The icon to my right and your left is an icon of the four evangelists.  The icon to my left and your right is an icon of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  Icons are a beautiful way of praying, because they are like a window into heaven.  We do not worship these images, but we honor them as guides to help us pray.  The gold leaf shows how precious they are in the eyes of God and that they are in the heavenly Jerusalem.  Their peaceful, otherworldly faces show the peace and joy that come from being in the presence of God.  They are meant to remind us that, as we gather in this church, we are not at an earthly gathering like a meeting or a social.  We are in a place which straddles heaven and earth and gives us a taste of heaven in the eternal worship of God with angels and saints singing “Holy, holy, holy,” and the prayers of the just rising before God like burning incense.

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity today, we may wonder why we celebrate a teaching.  The belief that God is triune, One God and Three Divine Persons, can seem very academic, and removed from the day-to-day cares and concerns of life.  The mysterion, the mystery of the Trinity is not meant to be something only we think about, but something we live.  Mystery in this case does not mean a puzzle to be figured out, but a reality which is unseen and yet fully real.  Our lives, as believers in the Trinity, are meant to be icons of the life of the Trinity, since we are all created in the image and likeness of our Triune God.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we are called to have a multiple personality disorder.  We are radically different from God because He–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–is the Creator while we are creatures.  But while we are different, there is some similarity between us and God, and we are called to become more and more similar to God each day through His grace until we pray that He finishes making us like Him for eternity in Heaven.  In Church language we call this process divinization: to become like God by the power of God.  Our daily prayer life, our sufferings, our worthy reception of the sacraments, and our works of charity are meant to help us accept God’s grace to become more like Him.  St. Athanasius, one of the great Fathers of the Church, who died in the late fourth century, said it this way, in the light of the Incarnation: “God became man so that man might become God.”  

If we are to become like God, then we should know something about him.  We know that God is merciful, like a loving father who runs out to meet his wasteful son; we know that God heals and brings wholeness to His children; we know that God is just and will reward those who follow Him and punish those who reject Him; we know that God has a special love for the outcast and the abandoned; we know that God is Truth; we know that God is Almighty and eternal.  We know that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as reveled to us by the Son.  The list could go on and on.  We learned some of these things from our readings today.  We especially learned from our first reading and Gospel that God is not far away from us, but is near to us for all time.

If then we are to be icons, we have to match those images that we have received from the Deposit of Faith: the Scriptures and the teachings of the Apostles.  To be like God, to be divinized, means to be merciful, even to the point of foolishness; to heal and bring wholeness to the extent that we can by our words and deeds; to stand up for justice; to proclaim and defend truth; to have a special love for the outcast and the abandoned.  How do we receive the strength to do this?  Through the ongoing use of the sacramental grace that we have received; through the worship of our one God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–at Mass; through letting the Holy Spirit empower us to preach the Gospel.  Otherwise, we, as icons, will not look serene, peaceful, and heavenly, but agitated, anxious, and earthly.  Those earthly icons do not lead us to God, but keep us bound up on earth.  They are not windows to heaven, but mirrors reflecting the fallen state of our world.

Marriage is especially meant to be an icon of the Trinity.  Marriage, the union of a man and woman for life, open to new life, is meant to show us God the Father, who pours out all of who He is to the Son, who pours out all of who He is to the Father, and in that sharing of perfect and full love, a new Divine Person is breathed forth: the Holy Spirit.  The Church spends so much time with marriage and the family because married couples and families are meant to remind us of the love of God.  

But for all of us, married or not, by our baptism we were called to be an icon of the Trinity.  One way in particular we can do that is by witnessing the love of God in truth.  We are a narcissistic culture.  We are first and foremost concerned with ourselves.  God’s love, on the other hand, is always open to being shared and creating new life, as we see from the very creation of the world.  God the Father had perfect love in Himself with the Son and the Holy Spirit; He lacked nothing; He needed nothing.  And yet, out of love, God decided to create the world to have new ways to share His love.  Let us be icons of the Trinity; not self-centered, but selfless, and so help others to see the God who love us: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.