Homily for 2nd Sunday of Lent Year B 2021
Genesis 22:1-2,9-13,15-18; Romans 8:31b-35,37; Mark 9:2-10
Introduction
Listening to the gospels of the last two
Sundays, one might think that the Bible is taking us through a lesson in
geography. For last Sunday we saw Jesus
in the desert and this Sunday he is taking a hiking trip up the mountain.
Many people think of the Middle East or
Africa as being all desert, always hot and dry.
But if you came with me this summer to Uganda, after getting your
vaccination shots of course, you would be surprised by the different
environments you would see. I would pick
you up from Entebbe Airport on shores of Lake Victoria, where you would spend
the night. Next morning, we would then
drive through very lush and green terrain, most of it quite flat and head
eastwards where my family lives. After a
stop at the source of the River Nile for sightseeing and lunch, we would arrive
in Eastern Uganda just in time to see the mountains off in a distance before
the sun sets. Perhaps a few days later,
after you have gotten over your jet lag, I would take you up to the mountains. If you are brave enough, you would climb up
to one of the peaks and have a panoramic view of the beautiful
surroundings. To the northeast you would
also see a desert; not to worry, we will not be going there. Instead, we will head northwest to the
wildlife park and do a safari, where you will see wild animals, antelopes,
giraffes, lions, leopards in the savannah.
And then after feeding our eyes with a sight to behold, we would head
southwards back to the airport.
Similarly, the Land of Jesus has a variety
of topographies, with each environment also having a special meaning. And so, in last Sunday's gospel we saw that
the desert was the place where God prepared his messengers for their mission:
Moses and the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, the prophet
Elijah and Jesus for 40 days and nights in the desert.
Scripture and Tradition
Mountains too have a special role in the
Bible. There are the places where God
reveals the most important things about himself. In the Old Testament:
·
It is on Mount Sinai that Moses
often met God and from where he came down with God's message, including the Ten
Commandments.
·
Elijah too went to meet God on
that same Mount Sinai (1 Kg. 19).
·
And today we heard that "Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led
them up a high mountain apart by themselves.”
But for Moses and Elijah, their mountain
excursions only gave them a partial encounter with God. For example, they only conversed with God,
but did not get see his face. God
revealed himself to them partially, like in a shadow or a silhouette. But just like he did with the desert
experiences, Jesus also fulfilled the mountain experiences of Moses and
Elijah. His mountain expedition was a
complete revelation to the disciples of himself, of his divine nature.
·
We heard that “he was
transfigured before them and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no
fuller on earth could bleach them.” Jesus did not just clean up a bit, but
was entirely changed so that now they could see he was no ordinary man, but the
Son of God.
·
As if having a facelift and a
wardrobe change was not enough, we heard that “then Elijah appeared to them
along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.” The disciples saw
these revered heroes of the Old Testament, messengers of God, symbols of God's
Law and the Prophets, whose presence basically said: "look guys, this the
one we told you would come and save God's people; he is the Son of God."
·
And to top it off, there was
the voice of the Father himself from the cloud saying: “This is my beloved Son. Listen
to him,” thus leaving no doubt in
their minds that Jesus is God, and fulfilling the purpose of the mountain
expedition, to reveal to them what heaven would be like.
That is the reason that Jesus took this
inner group of disciples with him up this mountain. It is for the same reason the Church gives us
this gospel on the Second Sunday of Lent.
Just before this field trip, Jesus had
announced to his disciples for the first time that “that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders,
the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days”
(Mk. 8:31). The disciples had found this
message unthinkable. How could their
Messiah suffer? How could he who should come
in glory and power be killed? In fact,
Peter had even suggested that Jesus was out of his mind! To which Jesus had responded quite sternly: ““Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not
as God does, but as human beings do.” Jesus even went further and told his
followers that they too would have to suffer like him. He said: “whoever
wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
And so, having proposed this rather stark
picture of what it means to be a disciple, Jesus wanted to give his disciples a
morale booster, an antidote, if you like.
That is why he took this inner group of close confidants, to show them that
his suffering, their suffering would not be for nothing. It would be the means by which they would share
in the glory of the Father. And so, on
the mountain, they experience in the transfiguration a foretaste of that glory
of Jesus, to which they must look forward and for which they must work hard.
We could think of this mountain experience
as being like the samples of delicious treats that Costco or Sam's Club gives
customers, with the hope that you will then buy tonnes of the stuff. We could also think of this experience as being
like the sneak-peak of a movie enticing you to go and see the real thing.
But Peter did not seem to understand the
purpose of the field trip. He told Jesus: “Rabbi, it is good that we are
here! Let us make three tents: one for
you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
Peter wanted to stay there and just take in the experience. It would be like a customer who just keeps
eating the samples in Costco without buying anything, or watches only previews
of movies, without seeing any of them. And
yet Jesus gave them the preview so that they would go back down the mountain
and now do the hard work.
Christian Application
We too have just begun 40 days of the desert
experience of Lent. And we might be
discouraged by the difficulty of fasting, almsgiving and prayer. We might be discouraged by the suffering that
comes with being faithful to Jesus Christ.
We too need to be encouraged by being given a sneak-peek of that for
which we are going through this Lent, so we can carry our crosses daily.
It is like when a civil engineer is
building a bridge, or an architect a house or carpenter making a couch, he or
she starts of by having the final product in his mind and even on paper. And then he begins working on the project. We too need a mental picture of what the end
will look like, so that we can go through Lent and indeed through life
accordingly. That end is what we just
head described in the gospel, a life of glory with God for eternity. If we think about heaven as our goal, then everything
we do here will be geared towards that one goal, admission into heaven, thus
providing a roadmap for our lives.
But wo we think about heaven at all or are
we concerned just about this life?
Someone once said modern man, despite the advancement of science, has a
shorter lifespan than our ancestors.
While we can live well into our eighties, that is it – that is all some
people are concerned about. But ancient
man, while he lived only up to 40, if at all, that short life here on earth was
followed by eternal life. I believe 40
plus eternal life is much longer than 80 years.
Conclusion
And so, my friends, besides
this gospel let us also turn towards several other mountain experiences to
inspire and encourage us in our Lenten observance. Which one will inspire you? A devotional practice like, Adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament, the Way of the Cross and the Rosary? Going to your annual confession? Attending
daily Mass? What will strengthen you to
continue carrying your cross daily and following Jesus?
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