Fr Paolo Consonni, MCCJ
02 Sunday LENT Year A
Last Sunday we read of Jesus being taken by Satan to a very high mountain to be tempted, unsuccessfully, with worldly powers and riches (Mt 4:8-10). This Sunday, we find Jesus again on another high mountain, the mount of Transfiguration, where He took three of his disciples. (Mt 17:1-9) Unlike Satan, Jesus did not show them worldly splendors, but the beauty of His being one with the Father and the glory emanating from the offering of His Life according to His plan of salvation.
A few days before this, Jesus told the disciples about His impending death and resurrection, but He met rejection and unbelief. Peter even exclaimed: “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” (Mt 16:22). But Jesus doubled down: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”. (Mt 16:24) Jesus’ invitation a few days later to climb Mount Tabor was meant to symbolize the long journey of faith awaiting the disciples.
In this year’s Lenten Message, Pope Francis compared the “ascension” of the mountain of Transfiguration to the spiritual discipline required to follow Jesus. “Lenten penance is a commitment, sustained by grace, to overcome our lack of faith and our resistance to following Jesus on the way of the cross,” said the Pope, adding: “To deepen our knowledge of the Master, to fully understand and embrace the mystery of his salvation, accomplished in total self-giving inspired by love, we must allow ourselves to be taken aside by him and to detach ourselves from mediocrity and vanity. We need to set out on the journey, an uphill path that, like a mountain trek, requires effort, sacrifice and concentration”.
But a surprise awaited the disciples on the top of the mountain. Jesus was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light (Mt 17:2). The pope commented: “At the end of their ascent, as they stand on the mountain heights with Jesus, the three disciples are given the grace of seeing him in his glory, resplendent in supernatural light. That light did not come from without, but radiated from the Lord himself. The divine beauty of this vision was incomparably greater than all the efforts the disciples had made in the ascent of Tabor. During any strenuous mountain trek, we must keep our eyes firmly fixed on the path; yet the panorama that opens up at the end amazes us and rewards us by its grandeur.”
In his Lenten Message, Pope Francis especially applied the teaching of the Gospel of the Transfiguration to the theme of “synodality” which the Church has been reflecting upon for the past two years in preparation for the next Synod of Bishops in 2024. To listen to each other in the Church, and to discern together the way ahead, said the Pope, “may often seem arduous, and at times we may become discouraged. Yet what awaits us at the end is undoubtedly something wondrous and amazing, which will help us to understand better God’s will and our mission in the service of his kingdom.”
But the Gospel of the Transfiguration offers hope in other aspects of our life too, especially when we undergo moments of darkness, pain and uncertainty about the future.
The pope particularly emphasized two sentences meant to encourage us. The first is the voice of the Father coming from the cloud: “Listen to Him” (Mt 17:5). The pope commented: “Lent is a time of grace to the extent that we listen to Jesus as he speaks to us. And how does he speak to us? First, in the word of God, which the Church offers us in the liturgy. May that word not fall on deaf ears; if we cannot always attend Mass, let us study its daily biblical readings, even with the help of the internet. In addition to the Scriptures, the Lord speaks to us through our brothers and sisters, especially in the faces and the stories of those who are in need.”
The second sentence is addressed by Jesus to the disciples who fell to the ground overcome by fear: “Get up and do not be afraid. And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone” (Mt 17:6-8). The pope remarked: “Do not take refuge in a religiosity made up of extraordinary events and dramatic experiences, out of fear of facing reality and its daily struggles, its hardships and contradictions. The light that Jesus shows the disciples is an anticipation of Easter glory, and that must be the goal of our own journey, as we follow ‘him alone’. Lent leads to Easter: the ‘retreat’ is not an end in itself, but a means of preparing us to experience the Lord’s passion and cross with faith, hope and love, and thus to arrive at the resurrection”.
May these words give us the strength to keep climbing the high mountain of our life with more faith, hope and charity during this second week of Lent!
(Photo: Maël BALLAND@pexels.com)
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