Dear friends,
This second Sunday of Lent brings to us the promise that is connected to following God’s will and listening to the Son of God.
In the first reading, the story of Abram shows us that responding to God’s call with faith is intrinsically linked to letting God work within us and make Him a part of our journey. God calls us to put our faith in Him. Today we are reminded that blessings always follow when we open ourself to the voice of the Lord. Abraham trusts in God, he leaves everything and the blessing makes him speechless: he will be the father of a great multitude and whose number will be more than the stars of the sky.
Likewise, the event of the transfiguration in the mount conveys the message of the promise that is attached to listening to the Son of God. Two things can be considered here. For one, the need to be open to the spirit in order to experience true encounter with the Lord. This means that our hunger for the things of the heaven will help us enter in the relationship with God, which will enable us to hear the voice of God. This is what it means for the disciples to go with Jesus in the mount. It is at that level of spiritual journey that their eyes can be opened to see Jesus conversing with Moses and Elijah, but also can their ears be opened to hear the voice of the Father. The second thing to consider is the temptation to escape from the world in order to find solace and comfort. The disciples experience something so overwhelming and so peaceful that they want to stay there, but Jesus reminds them that the outcome for their encounter is to go back to the reality of the world and work for God’s praise and the building up of the kingdom. They have to go down from the mount and experience the cross.
Today’s experience of the transfiguration is precisely what we do here in this house of the Lord. We climb in the mount to listen and to encounter the Word of God through the readings of both the Old and the New Testament. We are called to open not only our ears but our hearts to listen to God speaking to us. He comforts and consoles us, and we may be tempted to stay here to escape the challenges that await in the world. But we are suddenly asked to go back to the world to bear witness. We are made messengers of the joy that awaits whoever embarks on the humble journey of the Son of God.
Today, we are blessed to start our Lenten mission, and the theme is “The Christ Event and the scandal of the Cross.” We are called to reflect on the relationship between the Paschal Mystery and the Cross. We discover strengthen our faith in the truth that our participation in the salvation that the Son of God brought to us is a function of our willingness and determination to come down from the mountain and engage in the activity of discipleship. This means that we must be willing to carry the cross to participate in the mission of building up the kingdom. This is what it means for us to listen to the Son of God; to embrace the cross everyday and lift it high in order to rise with Christ and share with Him everlasting life.
Let us continue to pray for one another and for our parish family, especially during this blessed season as we embark with the Son of God on the journey of our own transfiguration.
Fr. Emery