SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT: A. Feb 17, 2008

  Gen 12: 1-4 Psalm: 33 2 Tim 1:-10  Matthew 17:1-9

1. Transfiguration and Repentance these words hardly seem to be go to together. Transfiguration seems to be a sense of ecstasy. One would imagine it is more or less like seeing people in movies strung out on a hallucinogenic. Repentance on the other hand seems to be a picture of subdued people who realise they are sinners. It is sombre picture of people beating their breasts and saying, “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.”

And so we look at the word repentance as John the Baptist and later Jesus preached. It had to do with sin. But it was not an examination of one’s sins in preparation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Greek word used is Meta-Noia. This means a change of mind and heart. It is a radical transformation. Radical from the Latin radix which means root, meant not a trimming of the branches and pruning the tree. It meant a change from the very roots upwards. It involved a change in the very way of thinking. It meant taking a detour, a total detour from the road on which we normally walk. With this in mind, we take a look at our readings today. There is a transfiguration - a total change of the person, and it comes from repentance,

a total change from the way they looked at life,

a totally new direction from the path we normally take

a totally new set of values we accept as we live.

2.  First we have Abraham.  God calls him from the comfort of his home in UR of the Chaldees. He was married. He had riches in cattle and servants. He is called to leave this comfort zone. He is to follow God into an unknown land, to live amidst a people whose language he does not know. And Abram goes on the basis of a trust in the Lord. He is well fixed in his ways. He is secure in his philosophy of life. He is asked to change that whole context. He is asked for a Repentance: a Change of Mind and Heart.  People who are adventuresome will find no difficulty in the call of Abram. They will climb a mountain, because it is there to climb. They will swim a river, because it is there to swim. But most of us are secure in what we do, and we do not want to risk more than what we can see, touch, and know.

3. Then the Letter to Timothy from Paul. He invites Timothy on a way of life which is quite foreign to what our Society lives and espouses. The World tells us to eat, drink and be merry. The World wants to avoid pain at all cost, and like Wrigley’s chewing gum double our pleasure.

 It will take a great deal of Repentance, a great deal of “Change of Mind” to move to a way of life where we join Paul and the Apostles in suffering for the Gospel. The Gospel  is not sadistic promoting pain for the sake of pain. However, as we saw in the Life of Jesus, the moment he stood for truth and justice, he became a target of persecution.  One does not even have to speak out against injustice, just living it makes one’s witness uncomfortable to those who cheat and lie and do not walk in the path of the Lord.  It is easier to choose the broad and easy path. Everyone will like you. Everyone will be on your side.

3a  However, we are called precisely to “Change of Heart.” To a radical Transfiguration not merely of what we appear, but of what we are. As Mother Teresa would say:

People are unreasonable, illogical, and selfcentred. Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and enemies. Succeed anyway.

The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you help them. Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you've got anyway.

4. Our transfiguration Story is unlike any other experience in the Gospel. It not like a miracle to cure the blind, deaf and lame. It is not a parable to bring out a lesson. It is not a teaching to instruct the Apostles.  If one wants to link it with any of the Gospel events, I would call it part three of the Revelation of Jesus.

The first bit of revelation came in two parts, one with the appearance of the Angels to the Shepherds and telling them to go to Bethlehem, and the second part was the Star bringing the Magi to the same spot.

The Second is at the Baptism of Jesus, where the Father would tell us: This is my beloved Son.

The third is today, when the third part of the Revelation is the instruction: This my beloved Son, listen to Him.

5.  AT each stage we are given the choice of either Accepting the Word made flesh who dwells in our midst or of rejecting him. No one in their senses would reject the Word of God. What we do reject is his invitation to a way of life which is Radically different from the lure and enticement of the Society in which we live.

• sell all you have and come follow me
• if you want to follow me, pick up your cross daily.
• if you loose your life for my sake, you will save it.
• no one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is worthy of the Kingdom
• the Kingdom of God is for all, not only for the People of Israel.

When Jesus said these things, they tried to stone him, they tried to take him to the cliff and throw him down, they sought to imprison him, they finally crucified him. But the invitation is still there: “I do not call you servants any longer, I call you friends. Abide in me.”  In the Transfiguration, we see the radical transformation of the appearance of Jesus. Jesus in turn invites us into a Repentance, a radical transformation from the interior. This is the call of our Baptism.