First Reading: Gen15:5-12.17-18; Psalm: 27. R. v. 1a; Second Reading: Phil3:17-4:1; Gospel: Lk 9:28b-36

FROM TRASNFORMATION TO FAITH

BY FR VALENTINE NNAMDI EGBUONU, MSP

In our readings on this second Sunday in Lent, two figures stand out vividly: Abram, who will later become Abraham, our father in faith; and Jesus the divine Son of God. In the first reading, God will make a covenant with Abram. And in the gospel Jesus will be changed before his three disciples on the mountain of transfiguration. God’s covenant with Abram would lead Abram to faith. And the transfiguration of Jesus would lead his three disciples to a new discovery of him. Thus, we can say that there are three themes linked together from our readings of today: Covenant-Change-Faith.

God made three promises to Abram. The first was the gift of a son. When Abram feared that this might not happen as he aged, God brought him out of his tent and asked him to number the stars if he could. Obviously, Abram couldn’t for the stars were numerous. God then promised Abram that he will make his descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven through a rightful heir and not through the son of Hagar the slave girl. The third promise was that Abram would take possession of the land of Canaan having left his homeland in obedience to God. God endorsed this covenant by consuming Abram’s sacrifice with fire. This experience changed Abram for he came to faith in God thereafter.

In our gospel reading, the disciples were led into a new reality on the person of Jesus. The Jesus they saw on the mountain was not the Jesus they had known all along. They had journeyed with Jesus, dined with him and watched him preach the gospel and healed the sick. They had always seen Jesus as a teacher, a friend and one like them. But on the mountain of transfiguration, they saw a different Jesus. They saw Jesus as a being in glory; his clothing dazzling white as he converses with Moses and Elijah, the two pillars of the Hebrew Testament, representing the Law and the Prophets. The climax of their new discovery came when a voice from the cloud exhorts them to listen to Jesus the Son and the Chosen One of God. This experience overwhelmed and challenged them to grow in faith only if they listened to the command of Jesus.

From the encounters of Abram and the three disciples of Jesus, we see that divine encounters can change us and lead to faith. The transformation of Jesus before his disciples should not be seen as something happening to Jesus alone. The season of Lent invites us to participate in this transformation. Lent affords us the time to discover something about us that needs to change so as to grow in faith. This is why Christ through the Church invites us in this season of Lent to leave the plain and ascend the mountain with him through the threefold spiritual exercise of Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. Through these spiritual exercises, we can encounter God in those we meet and even discover something about ourselves that needs transformation.

For instance, when we schedule more time to pray and to participate actively in the prayers of the Church, like the Stations of the Cross; our struggle in accomplishing this could reveal how far we are from God, how lazy we have become to pray, and how our prayer life is gradually dying. Lent then becomes an opportunity to grow in this area.

When we struggle to fast, curb our excesses and battle against our habits of sin; this could reveal how engrossed or addicted we have become in certain lifestyles and how they have done so much damage to us and weakened our faculty of discipline. We could also discover some healthy benefits and many positive goals we could have achieved save for our indiscipline. Lent then affords us the time to speak truth to ourselves on how damaged we have become and the need to spiritually rehabilitate and reintegrate ourselves into the rightful image of God’s children.

When we decide to give alms in this season of Lent and hesitate or fail in doing so. What does that say about us? It could be revealing our stinginess, selfishness, pride, arrogance and our unwillingness to serve Christ in the poor and needy. When we discover this about ourselves, it becomes an opportunity for us to work on these imperfections in us.

The threefold Lenten spiritual exercise is very tasking and requires discipline. They are our own way of climbing the mountain to encounter Christ and to be transformed into the image of him. As St Paul recounts in our second reading, it is our “Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself.” (v. 20-21). Hence, we need the grace of Christ to encounter this transformation. Christ offers this grace in the sacrifice of the Holy Mass, the reality of his Paschal Mystery foreshadowed in the mountain of transfiguration.

So, as we gather together at this Mass as pilgrims on a journey of transformation, let us ask Christ for the grace to faithfully journey with him through this period of Lent in Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. And as we receive him in the Eucharist, may he transform our bodies into his, that our garments may become dazzling white, our souls redeemed and the voice of the Father reclaim us as his adopted sons and daughters. Amen.

PRAYER FOR THE DAY

Lord Jesus, transform us as we encounter you daily in one another that we may become more like you in everything. Amen.