Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent(A), Vigil
March 7, 2020
To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below:
The following text guided the homily:
- This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy to have a chance to ponder with you the consequential conversation God wants to have with us tomorrow on the Second Sunday of Lent.
- Every year ten days into Lent the Church has us journey with Jesus to the top of an exceedingly high mountain. It does so for the same reason why God the Father conceded to Peter, James and John the experience of the Transfiguration in the first place: to give the a foretaste of Jesus Christ’s glory to sustain them when they will see Jesus transfigured in blood, pain and suffering on Good Friday. There is an intrinsic connection between Mt. Tabor and Mt. Calvary, between the glory of the Transfiguration and the glorification of Christ on the throne of the Cross.
- We see it in what the subject matter of the conversation between Jesus and the two great heroes of the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah. Moses and Elijah are both precursors of Lent. Elijah had lived a Lent of 40 days crossing the desert to the mountain of God, Horeb, being hunted by King Ahab. Moses had spent 40 days in prayer at the top of Mt. Sinai and then 40 years with the Jews in the desert. They came specifically to speak with Jesus not about the glory that was to come, not about Heaven, but about the culmination of the Lenten Season: Jesus’ suffering, Cross and death. St. Luke tells us they spoke about the “exodus” that Jesus was to accomplish in Jerusalem. This exodus meant the passage Jesus would make from the slavery of death to the Promised Land of eternal life. Jesus, however, was speaking about this exodus while he was gloriously transfigured, not cowering in fear. God the Father wanted Peter, James and John — and all of us— to see this scene, so that it would sustain our faith when the suffering comes.
- The second connection between Tabor and Calvary is what God the Father says to the three apostles. God the Father speaks only three times in the New Testament. The first time is at Jesus’ baptism, when he said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” The last time is during the Last Supper when he stated that he had glorified his Son and would glorify him again. This time at the top of Mt. Tabor, however, when he spoke from the cloud, he went further. After reiterating that Jesus is his beloved Son, he tells the three apostles, “Listen to Him!” At first this makes little sense. What had the apostles been doing for the past two plus years but listening to Jesus? But God the Father knew that they had only been selectively listening, and they had been tone deaf to what Jesus had been saying to them about his upcoming crucifixion and death. They didn’t want to hear it. Jesus would tell them on three separate occasions that this would occur, but they refused to take him seriously, rebuking him, or fighting for who would sit on his right and left. Even after the foretold crucifixion, which should have been a confirmation, they still really didn’t grasp what he said about being raised on the third day and were stunned when he walked through the closed doors of the upper room. They needed to keep the connection between Jesus’ glory and his suffering. They needed to have faith that Jesus’ exodus, as painful as it would be, would lead them all to the promised land. The needed truly to listen to Jesus.
- If we’re making the connection between the two mountains, if we are seeking to listen to Jesus and enter into Jesus’ exodus, then we need to follow Jesus as he ascends and comes down from the experience of prayer on Tabor. Peter wanted to build three booths to keep the experience going, to make it quasi-permanent, to stay put. That wasn’t God’s will for him, and it’s not for us, either. God wants us to journey, to leave the mountaintop with Christ, to go back into the world, and then climb with him anew. Are we ready this Lent to make the exertion to climb the mountain to pray and fast? Are we willing to come down with Jesus and bring the fruits of our prayer, to bring the love that our contact with God inspires, to share the word that we’ve listened to Jesus say, as corporal and spiritual alms to people in need? Are we ready in short to join Jesus’ exodus and help others to do so, as we go with Jesus to Calvary and through Calvary to the heavenly Jerusalem.
- That’s the type of consequential conversation Jesus wants us to have with us on the Second Sunday of Lent, as God the Father tells us, “Listen to him!”
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