COVENANT, FAITH, AND REVELATION.
March 13, 2022
Second Sunday of Lent – C.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my
chosen Son; listen to him.” Luke 9:35
A Filipino Proverb says: “There’s no glory without
sacrifice.” And an Akan proverb adds: “Ears that do not listen, accompany the
head when it is chopped off.”
The Lenten Season is the best time for renewal of oneself,
for a genuine return to the Lord, and transformation of life. In that sense, it
opens us to a new covenant or a renewal of our promises, to a growth in faith,
and a new kind of intimacy with the Lord. Lent is a time for a genuine reform
of oneself that can happen only if we seize the opportunity for conversion. It
is good to see this dimension of Lent as the time of a new covenant sealed in
faith. Therefore, Lent leads us to the most Christian attitude, that is, to
listen to God and let Him transform us from within. Christianity is a religion
of listening and of faith. And Paul could say, “Faith comes from what is heard,
and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” (Rom 10:17)
Today’s readings open us to some Lenten obligations:
covenant, listening (obedience), and faith if we wish to see the Lord's
revelation. These elements are well exposed in the first reading with the story
of Abram. We read that the Lord God made a covenant with Abram his faithful
servant. He introduced himself to him as the Lord his God, saying: “I am the
Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a
possession.” And then he promised to give Abram and his descendants possession
of the Land. This promise was sealed as a covenant through Abram's sacrifice
and offerings, but before all, it was made possible only through faith and
obedience. As we read, “Abram put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him
as an act of righteousness.”
The Lenten Season is a time of growth in our faith. A time
to re-evaluate our relationship with the Lord, listen to him, and obey him. It
is only at that cost could we be counted as righteous.
In the Gospel, the episode of the Transfiguration of the
Lord emphasizes the call to listen. For, Lenten is a listening time. The
Catechism of the Catholic Church describes well what took place at the Tabor.
It says, “For a moment Jesus discloses his divine glory, confirming Peter's
confession. He also reveals that he will have to go by the way of the cross at
Jerusalem in order to "enter into his glory". Moses and Elijah had
seen God's glory on the Mountain; the Law and the Prophets had announced the Messiah's
sufferings. Christ's Passion is the will of the Father: The Son acts as God's
servant; The cloud indicates the presence of the Holy Spirit. "The whole
Trinity appeared: the Father in the voice; the Son in the man; the Spirit in
the shining cloud." You were transfigured on the mountain, and your
disciples, as much as they were capable of it, beheld your glory, O Christ our
God, so that when they should see you crucified, they would understand that
your Passion was voluntary, and proclaim to the world that you truly are the
splendor of the Father.” CCC 555.
The Transfiguration is an event between three persons,
Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. It involves three mountains, the Horeb/Sinai, the
Tabor, and the Calvary/Golgotha. And it turns around three moments of revelation,
the Law, the Prophecies, and the Salvific Passion. In this event, the
revelation of God reaches its perfection and completion. The Law was given
through Moses to lead the people out of Egypt towards their salvation. The
Prophets prepared the people for the Messianic time, the time of that
salvation. And in Jesus Christ, this time of salvation is made manifest and it
will be accomplished in his Passion and death on the Mount Olive and the
Golgotha. God's revelation runs the length of all these events of the life of
his people and in all these places, and it is fulfilled in the voice that is
heard: “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.” Therefore, the Transfiguration
is a revelation that leads to another manifestation and happening. With Peter
and his companions, we are brought to travel from Mount Tabor to the Mount of
the Olives and the Calvary. It is a journey from ecstasy to agony, confirmed by
the message of Moses and Elijah, and the highest point of this journey is the
glory.
There is a paradigmatic shift in today's Gospel. After
resisting and succeeding over the devil and his temptations, in last Sunday’s
Gospel, Jesus is now presented in all his glory. We are told that the real
glory comes after the trials. There is no glory without sacrifice. Therefore,
the voice that is heard by the disciples from the cloud tells us what we should
do; listen in faith and see that no glory can be reached without trials. There
cannot be joy without difficulties, and love touches its perfection only in
sacrifices.
St. Paul can go farther, warning the Philippians. We cannot
dream of transformation in Christlikeness and glory without the cross. In all
things, we should be imitators of Christ. Regrettably, and it is a fact even
today, Paul adds, “many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in
tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ...” As Christians,
we should not live as enemies of the cross. That attitude, as Paul says, will
only lead to our destruction. We should not live only for the pleasure of this
passing world and set for gods our belly and its needs. With faith, let us
return to the Lord, listen to him and make our priority his divine will. Then,
only, will we reach the perfection of glory.
We live in a world of noises and cacophonic. This is a great time for us to learn how to listen and open ourselves to genuine transformation.
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