Second Sunday of Lent Year A 2014

2^nd. Sunday of Lent

 

(Genesis 12:1-4; 2 Timothy 1:8-10; Matthew 17:1-9)

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, just think how God has cherished each and every one of us here, for:  

(He) called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

Think also how carefully and for how long He has prepared the way for our coming to Christ: how many of God’s servants, the patriarchs and prophets, have served God’s purposes -- at times with their very lives -- for our blessing!

Above all, try to appreciate how incredibly He looks after us in our lives -- short and apparently insignificant though they be -- by the sacrifice of His own Son, Who, as Saint Paul tells us in the second reading:

Has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel!

On earth it all began with ‘our father in faith’, Abraham some 4000 years ago: 

Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you.

The development and progress of that blessing promised to Abraham was, however, encumbered and hindered by ever-present sin and selfishness,  until it even came to be resisted by the official representatives of the People of God, by traditional Israel and the authorities of the Temple of which God had declared (1 Kings 9:3) to the young King Solomon:

I have heard the prayer of petition which you offered in My presence. I have consecrated this temple which you have built; I confer My name upon it forever, and My eyes and My heart shall be there always. 

These authorities, consecrated and learned in the Law, increasingly tried to put their own – discordant – plans and purposes for glory, power, and influence, before the holy will and the great goodness of God, to such an extent that Jesus Himself was able to say of them: 

Therefore, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’ in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world.  (Luke 11:49-50)

With such a background over the ages the current situation was disturbingly unclear to Jesus’ disciples, and was even, perhaps, becoming somewhat alarming: with ‘official’ or ‘important’ figures never far away, apparently always watching and listening even though they did not always choose to voice their opposition and threat.  And quite recently Jesus had spoken openly of His own looming death and had even gone so far as to issue a solemn warning to all who would become His disciples:

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 and that of the gospel will save it.  

It was, therefore, disturbing for Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration when, on awakening, they saw Moses, whom Jesus said ‘wrote about Him’ and Elijah, the champion of the Israel’s God and sworn enemy of all false prophets, about to leave Jesus.  Peter immediately offered to build three tabernacles hoping that they might remain with Jesus; but, precisely at that moment, the Father gave them the clearest possible admonition and the strongest encouragement to cling supremely and most confidently to Jesus in all His trials:

While (Peter) was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.  Listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:5)

This was a moment of supreme significance for the future Church, defining her essential ‘character’ in relationship with God’s Purpose and People.   Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, could give no more help to Jesus; they had prepared the way for His coming, as Jesus (Luke 24:27) was gratefully aware:

Beginning with Moses and all the prophets He interpreted to them all that referred to Him(self) in all the Scriptures;

but now, Jesus alone, and only He, could carry on to its final dénouement and fulfilment, God’s work for the salvation of mankind, of Israel and the Nations, of all Jews, Greeks and Pagans:

            This is my Son, Whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.   Listen to Him!
 

God the Father spoke thus to the three favoured disciples, but through them He addresses all Christians saying, ‘Listen to Him! He has come to do the work for which I sent Him: to complete My plan that you become My children in Him.’

“Listen to Him”: those are very significant words.  Some 1300 years before, Moses had spoken in the name of God to the People of Israel saying:

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. (Deuteronomy 18:15)

Moreover, the promised one was not to be just another prophet, even though it be one like the great Moses, because His words would be the very words of God Himself, and those who would refuse to listen to His words would have to answer for that to God Himself:

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put My words in His mouth, and He will tell them everything I command Him.       If anyone does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name, I myself will call him to account.”   (Deuteronomy. 18:18-19)

When Moses had been speaking with God on Mount Sinai we are told that, unknown to him, his face had become radiant and all, including even his brother Aaron, were afraid to approach him.  Here however, when the disciples Peter, James, and John, were with Jesus on the mountain, we read that: 

(Jesus) was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. (Matthew 17:2)

But, whereas the Israelites were afraid to approach Moses because his face was shining,

         

 Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.”

Moreover, we -- the true Israel -- are earnestly exhorted to fix our eyes upon the transfigured and glorified face of Jesus, by St. Paul who tells us:

God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

Jesus was totally transfigured: “was transfigured” is the Hebrew way of saying: “God glorified Him”.  The Hebrew tradition did not allow the naming of God and so the words were phrased in the passive voice:  “Jesus was transfigured” leaving “by God, by Jahwe” unspoken but understood.  In that transfiguration the glory of Jesus’ divinity enveloped His whole -- perfectly human -- body.  This should, indeed, have been the normal state of Jesus’ humanity; however, for our sake He set aside this glory and allowed Himself to be seen as an ordinary man, as Paul tells us:

Being in very nature God, (Jesus) did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.   And being found in appearance as (an ordinary) man, He humbled himself (yet further) and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!  (Philippians 2:6-8)

Today, however, in our Sunday worship, we are thinking of and wondering at Jesus in glory -- now the true and eternal Jesus; and we are filled with awe and gratitude as we realise that because human flesh does, in Jesus, bear the glory of the omnipotent and all-holy God, sinners such as ourselves can cherish the hope of being filled with the glory that He has promised to share with all who turn from their sins and become His disciples.

Last Sunday we heard of Jesus being taken to the top of a very high mountain and being shown and offered the glory of the whole world if only He would bow down and worship Satan.  There Satan promised a false and fleeting glory.

Today, we glimpse something of Jesus in the true and eternal glory of God:

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 

There, Jesus went Himself up into the presence of the Father on the mountain: He was not led there, He came, as the beloved Son before His Father, as of right; and notice -- with delight, surely -- that He was leading His disciples into the Father’s presence as He will lead us too at the end of days.

People of God, this vision is a God-given consolation for Christians to the end of time, because the words of Jesus echo down the ages in Mother Church.  We can indeed “listen to Him” because He Himself said to His Apostles:

When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.  He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.  He will bring glory to Me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.”  (John 16:13-14)

By the Holy Spirit -- Jesus’ parting Gift to us -- His truth is and always will be known to Mother Church, and that truth is to be made known far and wide to all those wanting and waiting to hear and to obey Jesus’ words of life proclaimed by the teaching of the Apostles throughout the ages:

He who listens to you listens to Me; he who rejects you rejects Me; but he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me. (Luke 10:16)

Those who listen to the Son speaking through His Church in the world of today are being drawn towards that final gathering of God’s chosen People of which we find a prophecy in the second book of Maccabees which says:

When God gathers His people and shows His mercy, then the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear, as they were shown in the case of Moses and of Solomon… (2 Maccabees 2:7-8).

That process is ongoing even now among us here today, and we can complete and extend it to its full and proper dimensions, When God gathers His people and shows His mercy, then the glory of the Lord will be seen as shown in the case of Moses and of Solomon, and as seen on the face of Jesus, and heard from the cloud, on the Mount of Transfiguration.   For, with the three disciples we too hear the voice of Jesus and we are urged by Mother Church to obey the voice of the Father and “listen to Jesus”.  Mother Church in the power of the Spirit given to her by her Lord teaches us how to obey Jesus, and the Spirit Himself will inspire us how to love Him; and Mother Church exhorts us to have total confidence in Him Who alone can, and will, share with us His glory and lead us and all His disciples into the very presence of the heavenly Father, to be welcomed by Him as His children, beloved in the Only Beloved.

1st Sunday of Lent (A) 2014

1^st Sunday of Lent (A)

I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ.    (2 Corinthians 11:3) 

‘Sincere and pure commitment’: the basic meaning of the Greek original words -- confirmed by New Vulgate -- is ‘simplicity, simple’; and that was indeed the attitude shown by Our Blessed Lord when tempted by the devil after His forty day fast in the desert.  However, in order to appreciate Jesus’ demeanour better let us turn to our first reading and study Eve’s attitude when she met with temptation.

The devil questioned the woman, not the man; obviously he did that for the surer success of his own plans.  What were the weaknesses that drew his special attention to Eve: was it the fact that she was wilful, even rebellious; or that curiosity, perhaps even a tendency to overweening conceit and personal vanity, was prominent in her make-up?  Most certainly she wanted to ‘know for herself about things’; above all, that is, to be able to form her own judgement concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil of which Adam had spoken to her.   Such a wilful desire for independence and self-determination seems to have made it impossible for Eve to recognize the devil, even when showing himself to her and -- in his very first words -- manifesting himself to be what he is essentially and eternally: namely, a liar and an implacable and deadly enemy of all who allow him to draw near and find a niche for himself in their lives.  How ironical it is that Eve, who was about to show herself to be so wilful before the Lord, could be so very, very, SIMPLE before the devil!

Hear again his devilish words, and recognize his endeavours to portray himself as siding with Eve against God in a pretended confrontation he himself was trying his very best to concoct, stir up, and promote:

          Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?

He knew full well that God had not given any such command: the couple were living in God’s garden and eating its good fruit, the devil’s words were simply a ruse to de-stabilize Eve and find out precisely what had gone on between God and the couple still walking innocently and unashamedly in His garden before His eyes.

The very fact that Eve responded so readily to the devil was amazing; for, after all, he was evil itself!   Dolled-up, disguised, or whatever word you may like to think, he was nevertheless, himself, and lying as he always does.  And yet Eve apparently sensed nothing at all untoward, she just talked with him freely and listened to him carefully!!  In doing so, she revealed both her ambitious nature aspiring far beyond what God had arranged for Adam and herself, and her deep dis-satisfaction with a life of simplicity and obedience before God.

Adam, on the other hand, found himself caught up in an already somewhat developed relationship between Eve -- secretly alienating herself from God in her heart-of-hearts -- and the devil, with whom Eve was now in open discussion.  It was a situation of which he was until the last moment apparently unaware; and surprised -- perhaps alarmed -- he behaved like a wimp who simply wanted to go along with his wife rather than actually take upon himself the responsibility of seeing that God’s solemn warning and express command concerning the tree in the centre of the garden -- a command originally given to himself before his help-mate was fashioned -- was acknowledged and complied with; as was, indeed, his most solemn duty both out of reverence for God and love for Eve:

The LORD God gave man this order: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.”  

The LORD God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.”    (Genesis 2:16-18)

Nevertheless, no matter what God had commanded Adam, Eve wanted to know for herself, to be able to form her own judgement concerning, that intriguing and most attractive tree, bearing fruit giving knowledge of good and evil. 

Such, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, was the situation which allowed sin and death to enter into our lives.

Jesus, however, the most Beloved Son of God and the supreme culmination and sublime fulfilment of mankind, in His confrontation with and tempting by the devil, was not interested in being able to form His own human appreciation of, or Personal confirmation of, His relationship with His Father; and He was most certainly not going to prove anything before the Devil’s tribunal. He did not need  to test, and convince Himself of, His divine power by changing stones into bread, even though it would have immediately satisfied His gnawing hunger;  nor would He -- by a farcically theatrical display of outrageous presumption -- descend(!) to demonstrating the validity and reality of the Scriptures’ attestation of His own Personal dignity and the eternal significance of His mission as Son of Man to the devil, who was himself seeking, most ludicrously and desperately, to sow but the smallest seed of doubt and mistrust in Jesus’ mind. 

In all and above all, though, Jesus would not entertain any wish other than that, in all things, His Father’s will, exclusively, might be done in Him and for Him: 

My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me, and to finish His work.   

To do your will, O my God, is my delight. (John 4:34) (Psalm 40:9)

At the beginning of the season of Lent, dear People of God, it behoves us to learn from the tragic failure of faithless Eve and feckless Adam as we, disciples of Jesus, seek to walk more faithfully with Him for the praise and glory of His and our heavenly Father; and Mother Church has given us, in our second reading, a text of Saint Paul that can help to interpret the whole situation for us:

Just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.

With regard to his own converts in Corinth, Saint Paul said that he feared for them lest their thoughts might be, or have become, corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ, and the corruption he feared was, basically, a lack of simplicity in their bearing as disciples of Jesus, a lack most strikingly exemplified for us both in the behaviour of Eve, ambitious and conceited, wanting to know for herself and decide for herself, and of Adam, indolent and – out of pseudo- consideration for his wife – fearing, or not caring, to take hold of the reins, so to speak, as was his duty before God.  

As we turn directly to Jesus for guidance, we see that -- as distinct from the spineless and accommodating Adam – He took hold of the reins most firmly when the devil offered Him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence if He would but prostrate Himself and worship him.  Up to that moment Jesus, facing questions about His own power, and His position in the Scriptures, had been dismissive of the devil, answering him with but a few chosen and correctly interpreted words of Scripture.  However, as soon as the devil sought to invade His Father’s realm by seeking worship for himself, Jesus immediately revealed the devil’s personal identity and his evil essence by the irresistible power of His own authoritative command:  

          Get away Satan!  It is written: ‘The Lord your God shall you worship’.

In a like manner He gives us guidance with regard to self-assertive Eve’s evil example and baleful legacy by His own selfless and total commitment to the honour and glory of His Father, the God of Whom Eve gladly heard the devil speak most disrespectfully:

You certainly will not die!   No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.

Of course, Eve listened gladly because the devil’s words expressed what she wanted to hear… he didn’t so much deceive her, as approve and proclaim her secret thoughts in order to promote and prosper her rebellious inclinations.

I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ.

 

Dear People of God, the New Testament bears repeated witness to Jesus’ preferred understanding of our eternal fulfilment as our becoming, in Himself, children of God; and His whole life gives us constant inspiration, guidance, and spiritual power towards the fulfilment of that purpose.  And so it is, that in our readings today Mother Church also chooses to give us further insight into the authentic make-up of a true child of God, by showing us how Adam and Eve both failed in that respect.

Saint Paul calls to our minds the threat and danger of a corrupted, insincere, commitment to Christ, which consists, he tells us, in a lack of simplicity in our relationship before God our Father and with Jesus our Saviour; and we have seen such a lack of simplicity and transparency at the root of the behavior of both Adam and Eve, in her self-centered and ambitious conniving and his spineless acquiescence. 

 

People of God, only simplicity before God allows God’s Gift, the Spirit of Jesus, to work freely in us and form us in the likeness of Jesus for the Father … and it takes both firm and constant courage, true and persevering humility, if such a reign of the Spirit is to become a decisive feature of our lives.  For simplicity embraces what is essential and most beautiful in the Christian life: it springs from deep trust and sure hope; it enfolds calm patience and long-sufferance; it requires a pure gaze of self-surrendering love fixed most devoutly on the Lord Himself in all His beauty,  and on His mysterious but unfailing goodness to mankind, indeed -- most mysteriously of all -- on His goodness to and love for each one of us personally, if we are but able and willing to advert to it comforting and calling us throughout the course of, and right to the final dénouement of, our lives before Him.

Let us, therefore, aspire to, love and pray for, such a humble but beautiful virtue; unappreciated and unacknowledged for the most part by men, but recognized and treasured by St. Paul as he constantly contemplated, and most ardently aspired to full maturity in, Christ Jesus his Lord and Saviour, both for himself and for us.