LENT IS A PERIOD OF TRANSFORMATION.

 

Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, Year C

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

Scriptural Texts: Genesis 15:5-12. 17-18, Philippians 3:17-4:1, Luke 9: 28b-36

 

With the account of Jesus’ temptation in the gospel reading of last Sunday, we were invited to have a wilderness experience just like Jesus in the desert. The desert/wilderness is a vital place in the Bible. In Hebrew, the word desert means “the place of speaking.” It is a place of solitude, stillness, transformation, encounter with God, and positive divine discipline. As such, wilderness experience does not always have to be a time of trial and pain. Wilderness experience can be a time of transformation resulting from the quiet and solitude of the wilderness, where there is room for God to speak with us. It is in this sense that the season of Lent is for us a desert or wilderness journey.

Similarly, on this second Sunday of Lent, the gospel reading invites us to another location with Jesus. This time around, we are invited to go up the mountain with Jesus. The mountain holds a significant place in both the Old and New Testaments, and the transfiguration of Jesus is the most significant mountain-scene in the Gospels. The mountain is a place of ascendancy, prayer, meeting, encounter with God and nearness to God who lives in the heavens. The transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain shows us that the mountain too is the place where our spiritual resources can be renewed and moral vision clarified.

St. Luke tells us that Jesus took with him, Peter, James and John and went up to the mountain to pray, and as he was praying, the appearance of his countenance was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. The season of Lent is an invitation for us to undergo our own transfiguration or transformation. Like Peter, James and John in that transfiguration story, we too are invited by Jesus in this season of Lent, to go up the mountain with Jesus himself in order to be transformed by him. We need to step back and simply be before the Lord, allowing his love to transfigure us. The Lord wants us to abandon our old habits, cast off the deeds of darkness and open ourselves up to God present to us in his love. The Lord wants to reveal to us his glory in the same way as he revealed same to the apostles. As St. Paul tells us in the second reading, our ultimate destiny in eternity is to be transfigured, so that we can finally become copies of Christ's own glorified body (Phil 3:21).

The experience of the three apostles in the gospel reading and that of Abram in the first reading share many similarities. Just as Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain alone by themselves to pray, so also did God take Abram outside to see and count the number of stars (Genesis 15:5-12). The season of Lent is a time of stepping away from our normal way of life and comfort zone. It is a time of being apart with Jesus. In this season of Lent, let us step back from false images to see who we really are before God. In doing that, we will realize that we are sinners in need of transformation.

On the mountain just like in the desert, the Father speaks and wakens our hearts to hear his voice. As we continue on our Lenten journey, let us always obey the voice of the Father that is inviting us to listen his Son. The transformation we seek begins to happen the moment we begin to listen to Jesus instead of the world. Abraham is our example because he listened and obeyed the voice of God as we read in our first reading. Let us too learn to listen to all that God invites us to be and to do, even when his words seem to make no meaning to us.