We too are Transformed: The Second Sunday of Lent

                                                   We too are Transformed:

The Second Sunday of Lent

March 5, 2023

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Genesis 12:1-4; Psalm 33; 2 Timothy 1:8-10; Matthew 17:1-9

 

          As the Second Letter to Timothy states, it is difficult to be a disciple of Jesus, but we are to bear it well because we will find the strength of God in our efforts. The journey was not easy for Jesus either. Each of the Gospels place the Transfiguration event directly before the decision of Jesus to go directly to Jerusalem and to bring his mission into its fullness. In this passage, we receive that this is both a private and public revelation – private in the sense that it was shown to the three closest disciples, public in the sense that it was such a powerful moment that the disciples were not able to contain its significance. Whereas the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees kept wondering about that nature and identity of Jesus and the source of his power, this moment is a direct manifestation that Jesus is the Beloved One of God. All power and authority rests upon him. The three disciples realize that before they travel up to Jerusalem, and they have a sense that the coming Passover celebration will be like none other.

 

          The Transfiguration is a moment much like the Resurrection because God is validating all that Jesus has done – his preaching, his miracles, his way of life, and his whole person. God blesses Jesus, which gives him strength for his test of the obedience of faith. God communicates that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets and even greater. At the Resurrection, God blesses Jesus again for being faithful to his mission, and it results in his elevation over all the forces and powers of the world. God’s validation makes the impossible possible.

 

          We have to recognize that when we gather for Mass and present ourselves to God, it is God who blesses us along with the gifts of bread and wine that we bring. As in the Transfiguration, we are transformed and fortified by God to accomplish the work that will be done through us. As Saint Paul reminds us, it is not our work that is blessed, it is our whole selves, so that we may be made holy according to God’s plans. It does not mean that we will be perfect or won’t ever offend anyone or fail in some way. It means that God will continue to teach us, to give us strength to live the way Jesus lived, and to help us to discern how to deal with our moral issues through our faith. Decisions and discernment are not easy, but we are told that God will work through us and will help us to form our conscience so that we may never betray what our conscience leads us to do. From our experience, and from the example of the Transfiguration, we know that God confirms and validates when we have acted as God intends. 

 

          Our work in Lent is to observe Jesus as he goes up to Jerusalem where he will be lauded and later reviled, but we watch how he is faithful to the reign of God and in building a community of friends who want to live as God intends for humanity. We become his friends. During Lent, it is important for us to increase our friendship with Jesus, to participate in his Eucharist, as we stand before God and are likewise transfigured. It is our time to recommit ourselves to our life in Christ and with the community of followers that he calls friends. As our Synod states, we walk with one another, we listen, and we learn, and God will bless us as God’s beloved ones. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

First Reading: 

Monday: (Daniel 9) We have rebelled against you God and sinned, but you have remained faithful to us in the covenant. You, O Lord, have justice on your side. 

 

Tuesday: (Isaiah 1) Wash yourselves clean and make justice your aim. Obey the commandments and take care of your neighbor.

 

Wednesday: (Jeremiah 18) The people of Judah contrived against Jeremiah to destroy him by his own words.

 

Thursday: (Jeremiah 17) Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings. More tortuous than all else is the human heart. The Lord alone probes the mind and tests the heart.  

 

Friday: (Genesis 37) Israel loved Joseph best of all, which created resentment among his brothers, who later sold him into slavery for twenty pieces of silver. 

 

Saturday: (Micah 7) God removes guilt and pardons sins and does not persist in anger. 

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 6) Jesus said, “Be merciful,” and “Stop judging because you will be judged by the way you judge.”

 

Tuesday: (Matthew 23) The scribes and Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Be wary of someone’s teaching if they have no integrity between their words and actions. 

 

Wednesday: (Matthew 20) As Jesus went up to Jerusalem, he told his disciples, “Behold. The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests, condemned to death, handed over to Gentiles, an crucified, and will be raised on the third day.”

 

Thursday: (Luke 16) A rich man dressed in purple garments died shortly after Lazarus, a beggar. In heaven, Lazarus was rewarded and the rich man was tormented in hell. He appealed to God to spare his family, but was told that they would not listen to Moses or to anyone who was raised from the dead.

 

Friday: (Matthew 21) Jesus told the parable of a vineyard owner, who entrusted the land to servants, but these men seized the land and possessed it. They killed the servants and the heir. When the owner returned, he cast the wretched men into a tormented death. 

 

Saturday: (Luke 15) Jesus is accused of welcoming sinners and eats with them. He then tells the story of the prodigal one who was well received by his father upon his return. The one who was lost has been found. 

 

Saints of the Week

 

March 7: Perpetua and Felicity (d. 203), were two catechumens arrest and killed during a persecution in North Africa. Perpetua was a young noblewoman who was killed alongside her husband, their young son, and their pregnant slave, Felicity. They were baptized while under arrest and would not renounce their faith. Felicity was excused from death because it was unlawful to kill a pregnant woman, but she gave birth prematurely three days before the planned execution. They were flogged, taunted by wild beasts, and then beheaded. They appear in the First Eucharistic Prayer. 

 

March 8: John of God (1495-1550), was a Portuguese soldier of fortune who was brought to Spain as a child. He was a slave master, shepherd, crusader, bodyguard and peddler. As he realized that he frittered away his life, he sought counsel from John of Avila. He then dedicated his life to care for the sick and the poor. He formed the Order of Brothers Hospitallers and is the patron saint of hospitals and the sick.

 

March 9: Frances of Rome (1384-1440), was born into a wealthy Roman family and was married at age 13. She bore six children and when two died in infancy, she worked to bring the needs of the less fortunate to others. She took food to the poor, visited the sick, cared for the needy in their homes. When other women joined in her mission, they became Benedictine oblates. She founded a monastery for them after her husband's death. 

 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• March 5, 1887. At Rome, the obsequies of Fr. Beckx who died on the previous day. He was 91 years of age and had governed the Society as General for 34 years. He is buried at San Lorenzo in Campo Verano. 
• March 6, 1643. Arnauld, the Jansenist, published his famous tract against Frequent Communion. Fifteen French bishops gave it their approval, whereas the Jesuit fathers at once exposed the dangers in it. 
• March 7, 1581. The Fifth General Congregation of the Society bound the professors of the Society to adhere to the doctrine of St Thomas Aquinas. 
• March 8, 1773. At Centi, in the diocese of Bologna, Cardinal Malvezzi paid a surprise visit to the Jesuit house, demanding to inspect their accounting books. 
• March 9, 1764. In France, all Jesuits who refused to abjure the Society were ordered by Parliament to leave the realm within a month. Out of 4,000 members only five priests, two scholastics, and eight brothers took the required oath; the others were driven into exile. 
• March 10, 1615. The martyrdom in Glasgow, Scotland, of St John Ogilvie. 
• Mar 11, 1848. In Naples, Italy, during the 1848 revolution, 114 Jesuits, after much suffering, were put into carts and driven ignominiously out of the city and the kingdom.