Transfigured

At first glance the first reading for this Sunday’s liturgy seems to be about Abram; however, it is really about God. 

“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you” (Genesis 12:2-3).

This five-fold promise to Abram is about what God will do through him and through the people of which he will be the founder/father.  We can understand the promise better if we understand the name of the man to whom the promise was made.  The name “Abram” means “whose father” (Ab) “is great” (ram).  God asks Abram to leave greatness so that he can be made even greater.  That blessing will be bestowed upon all the people of the world, the earth, through this people which God will call peculiarly God’s own. 

The call to greatness that Abram receives is echoes in the responsorial psalm which we prayed together: “Lord, may your mercy (kindness, blessing) be on us as we place our hope in you.”  As Abram responded to God’s call without question, we imitate Abram by placing all our trust in God.

Just as God called Abram to greatness, Paul reminds Timothy and us that we too have been called by God, called to a holy life, a life set apart from the rest of the world, a life that gives witness to the fact that Jesus has destroyed sin and death and brought us to immortality and life.

The story of the Transfiguration of Jesus is related on the Second Sunday of Lent every year, each cycle of the Lectionary choosing a different version of the story.  This year we hear Matthew’s story.  Each evangelist adds details to the story to make a particular point.  We know that Matthew wrote for Christians who had converted from Judaism and that his purpose to present Jesus as the new Moses.  Matthew is trying to persuade the Jewish converts that the Law of Moses has been completed in Jesus.  So he adds three details to the story that mirror Moses who also met God on a mountaintop hundreds of years before Jesus.  He begins the story by telling us that this took place “six days after” Peter’s confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.  When Moses climbed to the top of Mt. Sinai, the glory of the Lord covered the mountain top for six days.  Then Matthew makes a special reference to the face of Jesus shining like the sun.  When Moses descended the mountain after receiving the Law, he had to veil his face as the people were afraid to approach him because of the radiance of his face.  Finally, Matthew mentions Moses before Elijah, unlike Mark who mentions Elijah first. 

Once we understand the meaning and the mission of Christ, there is only one obligation: “Listen to him.”  Like Abram who was called by God to a new greatness, like the early Christians who were reminded that they were called to a holy life, we too are called to listen to Jesus.  Listening to Jesus means that we cannot simply remain where we are – we must grow, we must change.  This is the essential task of Lent.  As we move toward the celebration of Easter at which time we will once again renew our baptismal promises, we must change.  Peter’s response to the Transfiguration and Jesus’ rejection to the idea of making tents on the top of the mountain indicates the need to change.  We cannot be satisfied with simply sitting in the warmth and glow of the love of God.  We have to come down off the mountaintop, down to the gritty streets and the nitty-gritty of our kitchens and the realities of our jobs and the messiness of living among an unbelieving people where we are called to “transform” the world by our presence, by our holiness, by our call to holiness, a universal call for all who trust in God.

God will support us in this.  Once again we approach the altar and feed on the body and blood of Jesus, who is our food for the journey, our sustenance as we make our way through the desert to the promise of the Land of Milk and Honey.  We will pass over the River Jordan into the Promised Land one day just as our ancestors did so many years ago.  We have already passed over through our baptism and simply wait for the day when we will reap the reward that has been promised to all who place their trust and hope in God.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator