Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Agnes Church, Manhattan
Second Sunday of Lent, Extraordinary Form
March 17, 2019
1 Thess 4:1-7, Matt 17: 1-9
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following text guided today’s homily:
“This is the will of God, your holiness,” St. Paul tells us today in his First Letter to the Thessalonians. The whole season of Lent is meant to focus us anew on this call to be holy as God is holy. As Lent began, we were marked with ashes, reminded that we are dust and unto dust we shall return, and instructed to waste no time in pursuing holiness through repenting and believing in the Gospel. The three Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are meant to help us to unite ourselves to Jesus in his holiness, through entering into his prayer, his 40 day fast in the desert, and his giving of himself down to the last drop of his blood for us and others. Prayer, almsgiving and fasting, respectively, help us to confront the temptations of the devil to disorder our relationship with God, with others and with ourselves, to overcome the three-fold concupiscence toward controlling individualism, materialism, and hedonism, so that we might freely life for God. God’s will for us is our sanctification and Lent is the health club for the soul that is meant to get us to shed spiritual obesity and lethargy and get us into true Christian shape.
That’s why on the Second Sunday of Lent each year we ponder the scene of the Transfiguration of Jesus, which teaches us three essential lessons about Lent and about the perennial call to holiness.
The first is the exertion, the effort, that a holy Lent and life entails. In today’s Gospel, Jesus leads Peter, James and John on a hike up an “exceedingly high mountain.” Christian tradition normally 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 up narrow zig-zagging paths. It would take vigorous climbers at least a few hours to ascend on foot. Many Scriptural scholars, however, believe the more likely place where this glorification happened was Mount Hermon, now in southern Syria and close to Caesarea Philippi where the preceding scene in St. Matthew’s Gospel took place. Mount Hermon is 9,232 feet tall, approximately five times the height of Mt. Tabor (1886 feet). That would have been a whole day’s work to ascend. They would have needed to leave civilization behind, leave their comfort zones behind, and climb with Jesus, sweating, probably gasping for air, to pray with him and see him revealed. The lesson for us in Lent and in life is that the Lord is likewise asking of us to make an exertion. Lent is fundamentally dynamic. We’re called to be on the move. Jesus never says to us, “Stay where you are,” but always “Come!,” and “Go!” and “Follow me!” And the pilgrimage he seeks to have us make with him isn’t in a comfy golf cart. He’s asking us to climb, to sweat, to work, and to leave our comfort zones.
The second lesson is the foretaste of the finish line God seeks to give us to help us to persevere. Saints Peter, James and John saw something extraordinary at the end of their spiritual and physical climb: Jesus was transfigured. He and his clothes were radiant. He was speaking with Moses and Elijah, the greatest figures in Jewish history, about the “exodus” he was to accomplish in Jerusalem, when he would lead us, like Moses led the Israelites from slavery through water and the desert to the promised land; only this time the slavery is sin not Pharaoh, the water is not the Red Sea but baptismal, the desert is not in the Middle East but in Lent, and the Promised Land is 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 was so powerful the apostles didn’t know what to say, but they wanted to keep the experience going for as long as possible, building booths for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. We can ask: Why were the three apostles allowed to get this glimpse of Jesus’ divine glory? 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, to see, with the testimony of the law and the prophets, that the Passion leads to the glory of the Resurrection. It was to sustain their faith in trial. We know that it didn’t fully work. They fell asleep in the Garden. They fled in Gethsemane. Only John was present at the foot of the Cross. But while it for the most part failed them, it’s meant to sustain us. This vision of Jesus’ glory is what has sustained the faith of the martyrs in making the sacrifice of themselves for God, because they knew that once they breathed their last, they would see Jesus transfigured. This vision of Jesus’ glory, and how he wants us to share in it, is meant to give us the hope to persevere in faith no matter what trials come our way. It’s also what’s meant to help us live Lent boldly and make the sacrifices necessary in Lent to come into greater union with the Lord. If anything is keeping us from the Lord, the vision of the Lord’s glory will help us to cut off those hands or feet and pluck out the eyes. The sacrifice is worth it! Whatever we have to give up makes sense compared to the glory of Jesus we await, the glory he wants to share with us.
The third lesson is perhaps the most important one of all. After all of the other aspects of Jesus’ transfiguration, God the Father finally speaks. He speaks only three times in the entire New Testament, at Jesus’ baptism, when he pronounces Jesus his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased; at the Last Supper when, in response to Jesus’ prayer to glorify his name replies that he has glorified it and will glorify it again; and here. But what he says is really quite strange when you think about it. After pronouncing Jesus once more as his Beloved Son — and answering the question Jesus asked in the previous scene when he surveyed who people and the apostles were saying him to be — God the Father thundered, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!” It’s a peculiar imperative from God the Father. After all, what had Peter, James and John been doing for the previous two years but listening to Jesus? They listened to him call them from their boats to be fishers of men. They heard him say all his parables of the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Sower and the Seed, the Lost Coin, the Lost Sheep, and so many others. They listened to the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Plain and the great Eucharistic discourse in the Capernaum synagogue. They listened to him teach them how to pray. They listened to him instruct them as they walked along the dusty streets of Palestine. They listened to him lambaste the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees and console widows, sinners, and so many others. They had spent the last two years constantly listening to Jesus.
But God the Father noticed something that they themselves hadn’t grasped. They had been selectively listening to Jesus. They had been particularly tone deaf to what Jesus had been saying in the scene immediately preceding this one, when Jesus said that he was going to be betrayed, suffered greatly in Jerusalem, be tortured, crucified, killed and on the third day be raised. They didn’t want to hear it. St. Peter, right after his name had been changed to rock, had it changed again as Jesus called him “Satan,” and told him to get behind him in order to follow him rather than try to lead him, because they were thinking not as God does but as human beings do. Jesus ended up telling them what would occur three separate times, but they didn’t want to hear the message. When Good Friday came, most of them were not within earshot to hear Jesus’ seven last words. What they were even less willing to hear was what Jesus said after that, namely, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” To be Jesus’ disciple, to be able to follow him, they needed to say no to their earthly ambitions and be crucified with him.
God the Father, who could see their hearts, knew that they were ignoring what Jesus was saying about his transfiguration in suffering and theirs as well. And so that’s why he said, “Listen to him!” God the Father says the same thing to us today. He wants us to heed Jesus’ words, “Repent and Believe.” He wants us to act on Jesus’ commands to pray, fast and give alms. He wants us heed Jesus’ words to deny ourselves, pick up cross and follow him throughout the exertion of Lent and life to the place where he has built a booth for us. God the Father who calls us to listen to his Son will listen to our prayers for all of the help we need to have the trusting, obedient ears needed. That’s one of the most important parts of Lent.
Today we have an extraordinary example of someone who listened to the Lord Jesus, someone who took God’s will for his sanctification seriously, someone who repented and believed and helped so many others to do the same, someone who now beholds the Lord’s glory.
Born in Britain, the future patron of the Archdiocese of New York — and my native Archdiocese of Boston — St. Patrick tells us that did not have much of a life of piety until he was captured by raiders at the age of 16 and sold into slavery in Ireland. Suffering and hardship often remind us of how much we need God and his captivity was a time of great growth in faith for him. Patrick said that during the six years he tended his slave master’s herds, he prayed constantly in the daytime and prayed almost as much at night, sometimes spending all night outdoors in prayerful vigil of the dawn. One night in a dream, he heard a voice telling him to be ready for a brave effort to secure his freedom. And he trusted in the dream, like St. Joseph trusted in the Lord’s nocturnal revelations. In the morning, Patrick escaped and hustled 200 miles to a boat that he saw in the dream was about to depart. After adventures and hardship during which he was able to bring many of the ship’s crew to conversion, he arrived home. But after several days of joyous reunion with the family he loved very much, he began to be moved in prayer and in dreams to think of all those back in Ireland who had never known the Gospel. Against the wishes of his beloved family, he decided to use his newly found freedom to dedicate himself to returning to the land of his captors, to preach to them the truth that would set them free. He had no illusions about how difficult the task was that lay in front of him. He went to France to prepare for the priesthood so that he would be able to bring the greatest gift of all, the presence of the Lord in the sacraments, to his missionary land. In France, he prayed, fasted and readied himself for 20 years. Then, at the age of 43, having been consecrated bishop so that he could found churches and ordain priests, he set off with a few apostolic collaborators. Over the course of the next 30 years, he labored tenaciously for the conversion of the nation. As one of the great “Lenten” saints, he famously fasted for 40 days and 40 nights on what is now called Croagh Patrick in prayerful bodily supplication that those entrusted to him would receive the Gospel with faith. Village by village, chieftain by chieftain, he planted the seed of the Gospel. Though his life was in constant peril due to the hatred of the druids, he soldiered on, and through prayer, mortification, disputation, and miracles, his life of faith bore enormous fruit. Twelve years after his arrival, he was able to found the Church of Armagh, Ireland’s primatial see. By the time of his death in 461, the whole nation was Christian.
He renewed his faith and call to holiness every morning when he vested by praying a prayer he wore on a patch underneath his clothes. It was a daily reminder of how to repent and believe. It’s called St. Patrick’s breastplate or in Gaelic, Lorica. It’s one of my favorite prayers. To talk about a breastplate is to think of the “armor of God” St. Paul encourages us all in his Letter to the Ephesians to put on. That’s what St. Patrick tried to do with the words of this powerful prayer by which he bound himself in faith to God, he renewed his own fidelity to the Covenant, in the following ways, by calling to mind all the help God gives us:
- He first bound himself in faith to the Trinity: “I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through the belief in the threeness, through confession of the oneness of the Creator of Creation.”
- Then he bound himself in faith to Christ through the mysteries of his life: “I arise today through the strength of Christ’s birth with his baptism, through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial, through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension, through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.”
- Then he bound himself in faith to God through the intercession of the angels and saints: “I arise today through the strength of the love of Cherubim, in obedience of angels, in the service of archangels, in hope of resurrection to meet with reward, in prayers of patriarchs, in predictions of prophets, in preaching of apostles, in faith of confessors, in innocence of holy virgins, in deeds of righteous men.”
- Then he bound himself in faith to God the Creator: “I arise today through the strength of heaven: light of sun, radiance of moon, splendor of fire, speed of lightning, swiftness of wind, depth of sea, stability of earth, firmness of rock.”
- Then he bound himself in faith to the attributes of God so that he might become like God: “I arise today Through God’s strength to pilot me: God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me, God’s eye to look before me, God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hand to guard me, God’s way to lie before me, God’s shield to protect me, God’s host to save me from snares of devils, from temptations of vices, from everyone who shall wish me ill, afar and near, alone and in multitude.”
- Then he in faith rejected by God’s power Satan and all of his evil works and empty promises in order to believe in God more: “I summon today all these powers between me and those evils, against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul, against incantations of false prophets, against black laws of pagandom, against false laws of heretics, against craft of idolatry, against spells of witches and smiths and wizards, against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul. Christ to shield me today against poison, against burning, against drowning, against wounding, so that there may come to me abundance of reward.”
- Then he emphasized that he wanted to live totally by faith in communion with Christ, remaining in Him who is the Word made flesh: “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.
- Finally he renewed his entrustment to the Blessed Trinity: “I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through belief in the threeness, through confession of the oneness, of the Creator of Creation. Salvation is the Lord’s, salvation is the Lord’s, salvation is Christ’s. May thy salvation, O Lord, be always with us.”
Today we renew our Covenant with God by a similar commitment of faith. And the way we do so best is the way St. Patrick himself was strengthened, allowing Christ to be with, before, behind, in, beneath, and above us through Holy Communion.
Today we’ve left our homes not to hike up an exceedingly high mountain but to come to this Church. It’s here at Mass that Lent and everything else in our faith finds its summit.The Lord wants us to make the exertion to come here and hopefully to exert ourselves to leave our comfort zones to come each day during Lent if we can.It’s here that we see Jesus transfigured not in glory but in humility and we build not a booth for him but a tabernacle and a Church so that we can come into his presence and allow him constantly to transfigure us to be holy as he is holy.It’s here that we listen to his word, the words of eternal life, and seek to become living commentaries of it.Today, as a reward for our exertions, he gives us a foretaste of forever.The Father saying to us, indicating the Blessed Sacrament, “This is my beloved Son. Do whatever he tells you! Take seriously his words throughout Lent, ‘Repent and Believe!’ and follow him, accompany him, on the pilgrimage on which he wants to lead you, not to Mt. Tabor, not to Mt. Hermon, but to the Celestial Jerusalem, to the house where I’ve built a booth not only for him, for Moses and for Elijah, but for you!”
The readings for today’s Mass were:
A reading from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians
Brothers, we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, as you received from us how you should conduct yourselves to please God—and as you are conducting yourselves—you do so even more. For you know what instructionswe gave you through the Lord Jesus. This is the will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from immorality, that each of you know how to acquire a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion as do the Gentiles who do not know God; not to take advantage of or exploit a brother in this matter, for the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you before and solemnly affirmed. For God did not call us to impurity but to holiness.
The continuation of the Gospel according to St. Matthew
After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tentshere, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them,then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
