To the Mountain: Reflections on the Readings for the Second Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

If you haven’t already read the readings you can find them here.

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

Last week we read about Jesus in the desert. This week we go from the desert to the mountain. Today we will read about Jesus’ Transfiguration on the mountain in the company of Peter, James, and John. His visible appearance is changed dramatically. In contrast, as we progress further into Lent, we are called to change also, but our change is to be one of condition and character. In other words, we are called to conversion or internal change, change of our hearts. As one definition of transform indicates, we must become, in essence, another substance. Sure we will still be human but, as Jesus and the Church teaches, we will no longer be of this world for Jesus has called us out of the world.

A journey can be a hardship and a pilgrimage even more so. Being told to pick up and move completely can be even more difficult. Having been a career Naval Officer, I have experienced this personally. You don’t always get to choose where you are sent. This is what Abram faces in today’s selection from Genesis.

We first meet Abram in the previous chapter of Genesis where we learn that he is descended from Shem, one of Noah’s sons. We also learn that one of Abram’s nephews was Lot who goes with him and later settles in Sodom. And, reading a little further in today’s chapter we find that Abram was 75 years old when he left his home in Haran in answer to God’s call, making this an even more formidable prospect. Nevertheless, “Abram went as the LORD directed him.”

When they reached the land of Canaan, God told him, “To your descendants I will give this land.” Thus comes the title the “promised land.” God also told Abram, “I will make of you a great nation.” Today we are the descendants of Abraham (his name was changed in Genesis 17:5). The beginning of Matthew’s gospel traces the genealogy of Jesus beginning with Abraham to “Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.”

As Abram trusted the Lord, so the psalmist in today’s responsorial declares trust in God. Part of this is fear of the Lord. This kind of fear embodies respect and awe of God’s greatness as our Father and creator of the universe. Therefore, “Our soul waits for the LORD, who is our help and our shield.” We put our hope in the Lord and ask for His kindness and deliverance.

As Abram endured the hardship of moving to a strange land when he was already, in our terms, well into his senior years, in the second reading St. Paul speaks to Timothy of the need to bear hardship for the gospel. The strength to do this comes from God and reflects the sacrifice and hardship we endure during Lent. It strengthens our spiritual muscles. It also helps to redirect our attention away from ourselves and toward God. This is not according to our own doing but by God’s design. Through our faith and the light of the gospel, we receive “the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus ... who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

The Transfiguration described in the gospel is not only a look ahead at the glorification of Jesus but also another foretelling of what is to come in Jerusalem. This event comes six days after Jesus telling 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 will find it.” Our daily cross reflects the hardships we all face in our lives as well as the sacrifices we make in Lent.

He continues with a clear indication of His divinity, “For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.” (Matthew 16:24-25, 27) This statement sets the stage for the Transfiguration wherein Jesus’ glory is shown for the benefit of His three closest apostles, Peter, James, and his brother, John.

Coming down from the mountain Jesus enjoins them not to tell of their experience to anyone, even the other apostles, until after the Resurrection. He then gives them some additional insight to one of the prophecies concerning Him, that of being preceded by the return of Elijah. “‘Elijah will indeed come and restore all things;but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.” (Matthew 9: 10-13)

Reading the gospel passages before and after today’s selection gives us added insight, referring not only to Jesus’ coming suffering, but also to His glorious Resurrection and His second coming as well.

This event is related to Moses’ experience on Horeb (Mount Sinai). The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible (ICSB)delineates the common factors: “(1) Both take place on the seventh day (17.1, Ex 24:16); (2) both occur on a mountain (17:1, Ex 24:13, 15); (3) both Jesus and Moses take three companions with them (17:1, (4) Ex 24:1); the faces of both Jesus and Moses shine with God’s glory (17:2, Ex 34:29); (5) both involve the glory-cloud of God’s presence; (6) and both events involve God speaking through a heavenly voice (17:5, Ex 24:16).”

The “heavenly voice” is important. There are many today who still want to deny the divinity of Jesus. They try to say that He never claimed to be God. In order to do this they discount much that is in the gospels and even claim the gospel of John to be a fabrication. The apostles’ firm conviction of Jesus’ divinity is evident throughout the New Testament. For example, the second letter of Peter refutes this heresy outright. Peter begins his letter identifying our Lord as “our God and savior Jesus Christ.” He then recounts the events in today’s gospel, “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory, ‘This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.” (2 Peter 16-18)

The Transfiguration also prefigures our resurrection and that we will have glorified bodies as well. As St. Paul said, “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.” (Romans 6:4-6)

From the telling of Jesus’ Transfiguration we can draw hope for our own future as followers of Jesus. If we are faithful to His calling we, too, can be transformed and join Him in our own resurrection and glorification. As the voice from heaven told us, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

“On your part, be ready to bear sufferings and consider them the greatest consolation, for even though you alone were to undergo them all, the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.” Thomas a’ Kempis, Imitation of Christ