Fr. Roger J. Landry
Corpus Christi Monastery, Bronx, NY
Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Spring Retreat
February 18, 2023
Heb 11:1-7, Ps 145, Mk 9:2-13
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in the homily:
- How fitting it is today, as we make our Spring Retreat, that we have the Gospel of the Transfiguration, which was a retreat day Jesus held for himself and the apostles Peter, James and John. He led them up a mountain far apart from the crowds to pray, together with him, just like later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he would take the same three apart for the same purpose. Prayer is faith in action and Jesus was seeking to strengthen their faith, and through them, after his resurrection, the faith of the other disciples and centuries later our faith. They needed to make a huge exertion, climbing up a mountain. Growth in prayer, in the life of faith, in our relationship with God, is not always easy. They needed to make a long hike. We needed today to get up early and get on public transportation over to the Bronx. But as we see for them, that exertion paid off, just like we pray ours will. While they are praying, Moses and Elijah appear, showing how in prayer Sacred Scripture is actualized, in which we encounter the great saints not as past figures but very much present. They were speaking not of great feats 1300 and 700 years prior, but of the present and the future, precisely Christ’s “exodus” through death to life and suffering to glory. A cloud descended, symbolic of God’s glory and of mystery. Jesus is transfigured before them, in which his flesh and clothes became dazzlingly white from the inside out. And then God the Father spoke, not to his Son, but to Peter, James and John. “This is my Son, my beloved. Listen to him!” Those are exceedingly strange words in context, because the three apostles had been doing nothing but listening to Jesus for the previous two years. But God the Father knew that they were selectively listening and they were particularly tone deaf to what Jesus had said just before.
- The context was immediately after the scene of Caesarea Philippi, when subsequent to Peter’s confession of Christ as the Messiah and Son of God, he and the other apostles refused to accept Jesus’ words that he would “suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days” and that if any of them wanted to reign with him he would have to “deny himself, take up his cross, and follow” Jesus, losing his life to save it. Peter replied “God forbid, Lord” and rebuked Jesus. It’s clear they needed faith to accept the reality of Christ’s suffering, to trust in his word because of their trust in him, to accept in the present what Christ was saying was a guarantee about the future. Jesus had asked the twelve, “Who do the crowds say that I am?,” and then, “Who do you say that I am?” At the top of the Mount of Transfiguration, God the Father answers his Son’s question by thundering from the cloud that was covering Jesus, “This is my Son, my beloved. Listen to him.” He wasn’t John the Baptist, Elijah who was speaking to Jesus then, or one of the other Prophets, including Moses who was considered God’s greatest prophet. He was far more. And the apostles were challenged to grasp it. Peter, overwhelmed, wanted to do something to prolong the experience. He volunteered to build three tents, for Christ, Moses and Elijah respectively. But what Christ really wanted was to have them ultimately allow him to build a tent for himself within them, just like he wishes to do for us.
- Today Jesus has brought us here because he wants us to strengthen our faith,to speak to us about his exodus through death into life, to give us a foretaste of glory. The apostles were struggling to accept a God who would be betrayed, suffer, die and rise. Even after the Transfiguration they were still experiencing struggles. We see this because as they were descending, they asked about Elijah whom they had just witnessed and whom they believed needed to become before Jesus. Jesus answered their question, but while doing so, he brought them back on point, saying, “Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt?” He wanted to keep them on the main point and have them capture his words about his sufferings and theirs in union with them, so that they might grasp that after transfiguration in blood will come transfiguration in glory. He wanted to increase their faith. As St. Thomas Aquinas who will be helping us in our prayer later today taught, the Transfiguration occurred because the divine glory that was Christ’s was allowed for a moment to shine through His human body so that they could taste for a short time the contemplation of eternal joy, in view of the persecutions they would suffer. Jesus by our retreat wants to strengthen us in faith so that as we return to campus and face whatever we need to face over the course of this semester and beyond, we will do so buoyed by our day-long encounter with him here, by the reality of his presence, by the various graces he imparts.
- Today’s first reading is about the gift of faith God wants to give us and strengthen through our prayer. For those of you who attend daily Mass, you know that for the last two weeks, we’ve been pondering the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis. Prior to that, however, we had four weeks pondering the Letter to the Hebrews, because in order to understand the meaning of Genesis, we have to examine it within the context of God’s definitive word in Christ. That connection is even clearer today, when after 11 days in the Book of Genesis, all of a sudden we have the first reading from Hebrews 11. You may recall that it was exactly three weeks ago that we had the beginning of Hebrews 11, which begins with the famous words, “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” But after those words, we skipped to verse 8 and focused on Abraham. Today we return to it and cover verses 3-7, in which we look at the Creation account that we have been pondering over the last week, Cain and Abel and Noah from the perspective of Hebrews. And we look at them precisely through the perspective of faith.
- Hebrews defines faith as “the realization (hypostasis) of what is hoped for and evidence (elenchos) of things not seen.” I’ve printed the Greek because getting those terms right is crucial to understanding what faith is, and there has been considerable controversy between Catholics and Protestants on this issue, whether faith is objective or subjective. Pope Benedict, in Spe Salvi, clearly described what the Catholic understanding is. He wrote, “For the Fathers and for the theologians of the Middle Ages, it was clear that the Greek word hypostasis was to be rendered in Latin with the term substantia — … faith is the “substance” of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen. Saint Thomas Aquinas using the terminology of the philosophical tradition to which he belonged, explains it as follows: faith is a habitus, that is, a stable disposition of the spirit, through which eternal life takes root in us and reason is led to consent to what it does not see. The concept of ‘substance’ is therefore modified in the sense that through faith, in a tentative way, or as we might say ‘in embryo’—and thus according to the ‘substance’—there are already present in us the things that are hoped for: the whole, true life. And precisely because the thing itself is already present, this presence of what is to come also creates certainty: this ‘thing’ which must come is not yet visible in the external world (it does not ‘appear’), but because of the fact that, as an initial and dynamic reality, we carry it within us, a certain perception of it has even now come into existence. … Faith is not merely a personal reaching out towards things to come that are still totally absent: it gives us something. It gives us even now something of the reality we are waiting for, and this present reality constitutes for us a ‘proof’ of the things that are still unseen. Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a ‘not yet.’ The fact that this future exists changes the present; the present is touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future.” That’s what happened by the growth in faith that Christ wanted to help the three apostles receive on Mount Tabor: seeing him in glory, speaking with Moses and Elijah, hearing the Father’s voice, were all meant to give them something in the present that could sustain them in the future.
- We see the gift given by faith in the examples the Letter to the Hebrews gives us:
- “By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God.” God pronounced creation “good, … good, …, good, … good, …,good, … good, … very good” not just because it was good in itself but it flowed from Goodness himself. Creation not only came through the Word “through whom all things were made” but was ordered according to God’s word and mind. That’s why creation is revelatory and we can seek God through it. Through faith we grasp that the universe gives us, already now, a participation in God’s life and work.
- “By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice greater than Cain’s. Through this, he was attested to be righteous, God bearing witness to his gifts, and through this, though dead, he still speaks.” Abel’s sacrifice was superior to Cain’s because it was given in faith. Faith led to his justification and was an expression of it. He still speaks — his blood cries from the ground — because in faith he was alive and remains alive in God.
- “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was found no more because God had taken him. Before he was taken up, he was attested to have pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him, for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Sacred Scripture says very little about Enoch, just “Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Gen 5:24). But Hebrews tells us that he walked by faith and was assumed in faith. It also tells us two things about faith: that to please God by faith we must first believe that he exists and that he responds to our prayers, rewarding with the gift of himself those who approach him. Enoch had this dual faith.
- “By faith Noah, warned about what was not yet seen, with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household. Through this, he condemned the world and inherited the righteousness that comes through faith.” Noah’s building the ark was a trust in what God had said, that even though he could not have any experience of a storm on the way that would know no parallel, he started building an ark far from the water, far bigger than anything ever built. His faith in God’s word gave him the substance and the proof he needed.
- God wants to give us, through the gift of the ordering and use of creation, through the example of Abel’s sacrifice, through believing God exists and rewards those who seek him, through walking with God and through trusting in his word, a real participation in his life. Someone who shows us how to do that is Mary, whom we remember on this Saturday. She was one whose whole life, like Creation, was ordered according to the Word of God, who said in faith, “let it be done to me according to your word.” She was one who was praised by her cousin, “Blessed are you who believed that what the Lord had spoken would be fulfilled.” She was one who was with her Son until the end, as all that he had prophesied came true. She’s now interceding for us that like Noah, Enoch, and Abel, like Peter, James and John, like St. Dominic, St. Thomas Aquinas and all the Dominican saints, we might listen to the blessed Fruit of her womb speaking to us in the Liturgy of the Word and recognize the substance and proof God gives us when he gives us himself in the Holy Eucharist, our true, embryonic participation in eternal life.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 HEB 11:1-7
Brothers and sisters:
Faith is the realization of what is hoped for
and evidence of things not seen.
Because of it the ancients were well attested.
By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God,
so that what is visible came into being through the invisible.
By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice greater than Cain’s.
Through this, he was attested to be righteous,
God bearing witness to his gifts,
and through this, though dead, he still speaks.
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death,
and he was found no more because God had taken him.
Before he was taken up, he was attested to have pleased God.
But without faith it is impossible to please him,
for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists
and that he rewards those who seek him.
By faith Noah, warned about what was not yet seen,
with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household.
Through this, he condemned the world
and inherited the righteousness that comes through faith.
Responsorial Psalm PS 145:2-3, 4-5, 10-11
R. (see 1) I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Generation after generation praises your works
and proclaims your might.
They speak of the splendor of your glorious majesty
and tell of your wondrous works.
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Alleluia MK 9:6
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The heavens were opened and the voice of the Father thundered:
This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel MK 9:2-13
Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
“Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
then from the cloud came a voice,
“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Suddenly, looking around, the disciples no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.
Then they asked him,
“Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
He told them, “Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things,
yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man
that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt?
But I tell you that Elijah has come
and they did to him whatever they pleased,
as it is written of him.”
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