Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, C, Vigil

March 12, 2022

 

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.12.22_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily:

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a privilege for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation Jesus wants to have with us in this Sunday’s Gospel, as together with Peter, James and John and the whole Church, we behold Jesus transfigured among us. It’s a pilgrimage the Church has us make every year with Jesus up the Mount of Transfiguration to strengthen us for the journey of Lent and of human life. This year, as we continue to pray, fast and sacrifice for the people in Ukraine, as we begin to suffer the inevitable financial consequences here at home like higher gas prices, and as some wonder whether we are witnessing the first lethal stages of what could develop into World War III, the lessons we learn take on even greater relevance.

* The first lesson is about exertion, about the effort that a holy Lent and true Christian life entails. Jesus leads Peter, James and John on a hike up what St. Matthew calls an “exceedingly high mountain.” Christian tradition associates the mountain where Jesus was transfigured as Mount Tabor, which towers over Galilee and the Plains of Megiddo, and takes over ten minutes to climb in vans zig-zagging up narrow paths. It would take vigorous climbers at least a couple of hours to ascend on foot. They needed to leave civilization behind, they needed to leave their comfort zones behind, and climb with Jesus, sweating, probably gasping for air, to pray with Jesus. This Lent the Lord is likewise asking of us to make an exertion. He’s calling us to hard work. He’s calling us to be on the move. And the pilgrimage he seeks to have us make with him isn’t in a van. This annual spiritual altitude training, however, is meant to strengthen us for the uphill marathon of life and the inevitable vicissitudes that arise.

* The second Lenten lesson is the help God wants to give us as we make that spiritual and often physical climb. When they reach the top of the mountain, Saints Peter, James and John see something extraordinary. Jesus is transfigured. He and his clothes become radiant. St. Luke tells us that he speaks with Moses and Elijah, the greatest figures in Jewish history who symbolize the law and the prophets, about the “exodus” he was to accomplish in Jerusalem, when Jesus would lead us through the waters of Baptism through the desert of Lent to the Promised Land not flowing with milk and honey but the Living Water that wells up to eternal life. The experience of the various theophanies at the top of the mountain are so powerful they don’t know what to say, but it leads Peter immediately to want to get into real estate, building booths for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, to keep the experience going for as long as possible.

* Why did Jesus want them to have this experience? The reason was ultimately to strengthen them to remain strong in faith even when they would descend the Mount of Transfiguration to ascend Mount Calvary. When they would see Jesus transfigured in blood, they would be able to remember Jesus in glory, when they got a glimpse of his divinity. The Church helps us to capture the reason for Jesus’ transfiguration in the Eucharistic Preface for Mass, in which the priest prays, “For after [Jesus] had told the disciples of his coming Death, on the holy mountain he manifested to them his glory, to show, even by the testimony of the law and the prophets, that the Passion leads to the glory of the Res...