Second Sunday of Lent: Year A Transfiguration: “Seek his Face”

Second Sunday of Lent: Year A

Transfiguration: “Seek his Face”

Entrance Antiphon

♥ The entrance antiphon of today uses phrases: “…Seek his face. It is your face, O Lord, that I seek, hide not you face from me” (Pa 26: 8-9)

♥ Peter, James and John saw the face of the Lord

♥ Mother Teresa saw the face of Jesus in the poor.

♥ The Lord says: “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

♥ In our Christian life, in our priestly and religious life we need this experience of God just as Peter, James, and John had.

♥ Where do you seek the Lord, his face? Do you see him in the Eucharist, in the Word of God, in the church, in moments of prayer, as you go about doing your daily duties, in the poor and the needy, in your neighbour….

Collect

♥ Today’s collect uses the phrase: “… listen to your beloved son… with spiritual sight (eyes of our heart) made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory…”

♥ It is by listening (Word of God) to Jesus that our spiritual sight will be rendered pure and will be able to behold his glory.

♥ “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

Acclamation

♥ The acclamation of today says: “This is my BELOVED Son. Listen to him” (Mt 17:5). This can be understood as being told to the people to confirm that Jesus is really the Son of God so that people may listen to him; that they may not doubt his identity.

♥ Mark 1:11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” (Mk 1:11 NRS). This can be understood as being told to Jesus directly by the Father to confirm that he is really the beloved Son of the Father so that when suffering/passion comes, no doubt may arise in his mind.

Prayer after Communion

♥ Here we find a phrase: “…For allowing us while still on earth to be partakers even now of the things of heaven…”

♥ In the Eucharistic celebration, we are in fact on mount Calvary where the ‘visible glory of Mount tabor’ is present so strongly that only the eyes of faith (spiritual sight/eyes of the heart made pure) can see it for there cannot be the experience of glory without the suffering.

♥ Scott Hahn beautifully says: “Mass is Heaven on Earth.” Peter, James and John had ‘heavenly experience’ on mount tabor that same experience we have every time we participate in the Eucharist.

First Reading

♥ God said to Abraham: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you…”

♥ Peter did not want to “go” away from that mountain. He said: “Lord, it is well that we are here: if you wish, I will make three tents here; one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Tents are made in order to stay, to live in.

♥ A person who has ‘God experience’, or a true disciple should be able to move freely and willingly wherever the Lord sends him/her.

♥ At this moment I remember Rev. Fr. Mathew Pulingathil sdb, IND who said to me just before my ordination: “My dear son, with regard to your vow of obedience tell to the Lord; ‘Lord send me where I can do maximum good.’”

♥ God was sending Abraham for doing “maximum good” not the little good that he was thinking about his kith and kin may be.

♥ It can happen to us also. We can get attached to our own people, our tribe, kith and kin, our place…

♥ Jesus brought down his disciples from mount tabor to do “maximum good” and not to remain there on the top of the mountain .

♥ Our God experience should also be of help to others to live their Christian life well.

♥ Today’s passage is also asking us to examine ourselves as to how is our vow of obedience. Do we promptly obey God in the person of our superiors?

♥ Sr. Mary, a very old sister told a young sister who came to visit her: “My dear sister, see God in your superiors.”

♥ God is telling Abraham to go to an unknown land. A person who is in love with God will go to that unknown land/people.  We like to work for our own people, think of our own people. In the initial stage it may be okay. Jesus also did something like that.

♥ …These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows: “Do not make your way to gentile territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; go instead to the lost sheep of the House of Israel (Mt 10:5-6 NJB). But we should not get stuck there. Go as Abraham went.

♥ And he said to them, “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Gospel to all creation. (Mk 16:15 NJB)

♥ God wants to make of us a great nation not a village of our own tribe; wants to bless us, and make our name great so that we become a blessing; he will bless those who will bless us and he wants that by us all the families of the earth be blessed.

Responsorial Psalm

♥ “…your love be upon us…” God’s love was upon Jesus. That is why God said: “This is my BELOVED son. I am well pleased with him.”

♥ The WORD of the Lord is faithful. Today we hear the word of God from the cloud. “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” His word is faithful. His word can fully be trusted. We need to listen to his Word in the person of Jesus and live by it.

♥ “The WORD became flesh, he lived among us and we saw his glory; the glory that he has from the Father as only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn1:14).

♥ Law came from Moses but grace and truth came from Jesus Christ.

♥ The Lord LOOKS on those who revere him…

♥ Do we see him, see his glory, his powerful presence, his real presence in the Eucharist.

♥ Word of God says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God.” If we are not able to see him that means that we are not pure in heart. We need purification in our mind and heart.

♥ If we see him that way in the Eucharist, we will be satisfied.

♥ Philip said: Lord; show us the father and we will be satisfied.

♥ Simeon: At last all powerful master. You give leave to your servant, to go in peace, according to your promise. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all nations, the light to enlighten the Gentiles and to give glory to Israel your people.

Second Reading

♥ Second reading says: “Do not be ashamed of testifying to our Lord.”

♥ Jesus told his disciples in the Gospel reading: “Tell no one the vision until the Son of man is raised from the dead.

♥ It also give us the hint that we should not be ashamed of our missionaries (St. Paul); the bearers of the good news i.e., Jesus himself. If we are ashamed of our missionaries, we are ashamed of the Lord himself.

♥ … but take your share of suffering for the Gospel in the power of God…

♥ Jesus took his share of suffering. Moses and Elijah on mount tabor are speaking about the passion of Jesus, about his passage from this world to his heavenly Father because they will be permanent partakers of his glory that will come through his suffering.

Gospel Reading

What happened before the transfiguration?

♥ Jesus told them about his forthcoming suffering.

♥ Peter: “Never Lord; this must never happen to you.”

♥ Jesus: “Get behind me Satan.”

♥ If you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up the cross and follow me.

♥ Those who choose life will lose it and those who loose life will find it.

♥ What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his own soul.

♥ The Son of man will come in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

♥ We remember the event of the Transfiguration in the Fourth Luminous ministry on every Thursday.

Six Days/eight Days/: nothing is known about these six/eight days. Six/Eight days and nothing is recorded on it.

♥ Disciples must be thinking to themselves as to where they are heading to, what does the future hold for them, there is tension in the air, not comfortable about the direction to which Jesus is taking them. He is saying that he is going to suffer and die.

♥ It seems as though Jesus is arraigning a SPIRITUAL RETREAT for his three disciples because they are filled with doubt and confusion in their mind about their future.

♥ People present in the scene are: God the Father, Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James and John.

♥ Moses and Elijah: Moses stands for Law and Elijah for Prophet and they were talking about the passion and death of Jesus. On the way to Emmaus Jesus made this point clear to his disciples who were shattered because of the passion and death of Jesus.

♥ Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself. (Lk 24:27 NJB)

♥ Transfiguration of Jesus took place in order to strengthen the faith of his disciples so that when the day of suffering comes for Jesus they may not be scandalized.

♥ In the baptism scene of Jesus we don’t have the words “listen to him”

♥ St. Paul: our present tribulations are nothing compared to the glory that is waiting in heaven

♥ Peter: Master it is good for us to be here: We need not seek spiritual experience always. We should not be attached to divine consolation if the Lord gives us at any moment of our life. If that experience is taken away then we need to fret over it. We should be willing to come down persevering with the Lord towards Calvary.

♥ When we experience the Lord, we forget about ourselves. Peter was worried about Jesus, Moses and Elijah. He forgot about himself. In the first reading God is telling Abraham to forget himself and his kith and kin and go to a place where God wants him to go.

♥ The Psalmist says: “One day within your court is better than thousand elsewhere.” How many of us long to be in the presence of God?

♥ The spiritual fathers say that it is better for us to be on the Calvary than on mount tabor.

♥ Glory: “He was transfigured”: While Jesus was praying, the extra ordinary event called transfiguration takes place; Jesus’ appearance changes; his appearance becomes as he would look in the future after his resurrection and ascension.

♥ None of us would like to imagine how we would be looking after 20/30 years. It will be fearful. We will be looking so old.

♥ The disciples needed this experience because in the next few days they would be seeing the suffering Jesus and at that moment they should not break down. Jesus wants to tell them: “Look what lies beyond the cross. The Kingdom you are investing in is not something in the air.

♥ Every missionary of Christ needs this experience. Every Christian needs this experience to sustains lifelong devotion to Christ

Witnesses: Two men: Moses and Elijah

♥ At the time of Jesus, people needed at least three witnesses to confirm that something is all right or not okay whatever. Here, we have Moses, Elijah and God himself as witnesses to confirm that Jesus is the beloved Son of God.

♥ They are sharing the glory of Christ. In the future other human beings also will share this glory, they will be transfigured like Jesus.

♥ They were great men but not perfect; Moses had murdered a human being; he did not enter the Promised Land because of his earlier failures and here he is sharing the glory of Jesus, of God. Three things are very clear from this scene.

♥ 1. Your identity does not end after your death (like Moses and Elijah) Centuries after Moses and Elijah had died, they are sharing the glory of Jesus. God has created you and me for eternity. You cannot be somebody else than yourself. Moses is Moses still now. This life will be continued. I will continue to be Blasius and not somebody else.

♥ 2. Your identity will be known after your death: the disciples saw those two men and they knew who they were -Moses and Elijah. They had no photographs with them and yet they knew. Do you think we will know one another in heaven? Of course we will but may not be as we know now. It will be a glorified body. We will be like angels seeing God face to face.  

♥ 3. It is possible to share the glory of Christ after our death:

♥ 2 Thes 2:14: Through the Gospel God has called you that you may share the glory of Jesus Christ. When we see him we will be like him for we will see him as he is.

♥ Cloud: A voice from the cloud spoke…:  God himself enters the scene. They were afraid. Cloud represents the presence of the Almighty God. Even came the voice of God. In the Old Testament we see the presence of God as “a cloud by day and a fire by night.”

♥ God was a kind of hidden God; hidden in the clouds and frightening God – fire. Fiery. You cannot go near him. Plane hides in the cloud; we cannot see it clearly when it enters in the clouds. The Old Testament thinking was this that no one has ever seen God; he dwells in unapproachable light. He is known obscurely. He is known in fear. And this hidden God says: This is my Beloved Son: Listen to him:

♥ This hidden God cannot be known directly and so he wants us to come to the knowledge of him through his Son by listening to Him.

♥ John 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known. (Jn 1:18 RSV).

♥ John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (Jn 14:6 RSV).

John 14:8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied” (Jn 14:8 RSV).

 John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, `Show us the Father'? (Jn. 14:9 RSV)

Through Christ we can stand in the presence of God.

♥ Moses was finding difficult to stand before the Almighty God in the burning bush but we find him today speaking to Jesus without any problem.

♥ In the like manner, Peter James and John were terrified. They fell on their faces and were filled with awe.

♥ Jesus touched them and said: “Get up; don’t be afraid.” I believe they were profoundly grateful to Jesus through whom they could enter the very presence of the Almighty God. If Jesus is with you, you will be able to stand in front of God.

♥ Walk by faith not by sight: When the disciples opened their eyes, only Jesus was there. It was just a glimpse of what would happen after his death and resurrection.

♥ Now they have to go on living by faith and no more by sight. And yet they will forget. Remember the Emmaus scene. Remember Peter who betrayed him three times….The disciples were discouraged.

♥ They went up the mountain with so many doubts and tensions. They came down very different. That glimpse is given to us in the Eucharist, confession, and all the other sacraments and different moments of prayer and meditation.

♥ If that is the future we are going to have, how shall we prepare ourselves in living today.