Homily
for March 4, 2007
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
2nd Sunday of Lent
By Fr. John Carney Topic:
Things aren't always as they seem.
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Gospel Reading:
Luke 9:28b-36
"Jesus took Peter, John and James and went up the mountain to pray.
While he as praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing
became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him,
Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he
was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. Peter and his companions had been
overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the
two men standing with him. As they were about to part from him, Peter
said to Jesus, 'Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three
tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' But he did not
know what he was saying. While he was still speaking, a cloud came and
cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered
the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, 'This is my
chosen Son; listen to him.' After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found
alone. They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they
had seen."
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I'm sure
that you are aware that there are three cycles of readings, A, B, and
C, and we change them every year. On the 2nd Sunday of Lent, in all
three cycles, we hear the story of the Transfiguration where Jesus
takes Peter, James and John and goes up to the Mount, generally
believed to be Mount Tabor, and is transfigured before them and we get
a glimpse of His Glory. We also hear this Scripture on the 6th of
August each year. It’s a very, very familiar story to us. Most people
believe that Jesus did this so that he could give his three key
disciples a glimpse of his glory because they would need to be
strengthened for the week ahead. This occurred the week before the
Passion. They were on their way to Jerusalem and they went up to Mount
Tabor and Jesus showed them his glory. Maybe he wanted to give them a
taste of his glory to get them through the week that was coming.
There is an interesting parallel between the Transfiguration and the
night of the Passion. In both cases, Jesus took Peter, James and John
up a mountain. Mount Tabor for the Transfiguration and then later the
Mount of Olives to pray during the night. In both cases, the Apostles
fell asleep. They are bookends to this most important period, these few
hundred hours of Jesus’ ministry. They learned a lot about Jesus in
that week or so. They learned that he is the God of Glory. They would
see this same Glorified Jesus just 8 or 9 days later on a cross dying,
his body disfigured with the marks of torture and death. They witnessed
not only his glory, but also the fullness of his humanity, the fullness
of his human suffering, and the fullness of his love because he died so
that they might live forever.
The Apostles are an interesting bunch aren’t they? Especially in some
Gospels. We’ve seen them as kind of slow, like us. On the other hand,
you could say that they had a tendency to be obtuse. For three years
they had been with Jesus and still they did not know him, they had
misjudged him. He had to prepare them for the Passion Week. On Mount
Tabor, they leaned that Jesus was more than what he had seemed to be.
Perhaps, we are also guilty ourselves of thinking that we have Jesus
all figured out. We place him in our own understanding and we take the
parts we like, especially the glory parts. We try to do away with, or
avoid, the parts we don’t like, the suffering part. Maybe we are not as
smart as we think we are. Maybe, things are not as they seem to be.
Maybe we have a lot to learn about Jesus and each other.
Stephen Covey wrote his very famous book, Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People. I imagine many of you have read that excellent work.
Covey told a story in that book that is enlightening about him and
about ourselves, I think. The setting of the story is a subway. One
morning, Covey is going somewhere in the subway of New York City. A
family gets on, a father and his children; I think it’s three. The
father sits there and the children are just going crazy, just running
around. One of them even grabbed a newspaper from some poor fellow as
he was trying to read his paper. Finally, Covey was exasperated with
the man. He said to him, “Sir, your children are really disturbing a
lot of people. I wonder if you couldn’t control them a bit more?” The
man almost woke up, as if he was in a trance. He said, “Oh. You’re
right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the
hospital where their mother died about one hour ago. I don’t know what
to think and I guess they don’t know how to handle it either.” Covey
suddenly saw that the situation had more to it than it seemed to him.
He had misjudged what was going on. Understandably, I think. Although
nothing had changed in that subway car, his new understanding made
everything a lot different.
Maybe we should take a fresh look at the things that upset us and see
that we might be missing something. Maybe we should take a fresh look
at the person of Jesus Christ and see what we may be missing about him
as well. Maybe we’ll then be better prepared for the week ahead with
God, with our family, our co-workers, and with each other. I think
that’s what Lent’s about, being better prepared for the week ahead. May
God be with us.