Readings:

Gn. 12:1-4a; Ps. 33; 2 Tim. 1:8b-10; Matt. 17:1-9

Good morning. With the first week of Lent now behind us, hopefully we have found a good balance with our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Remember, the season of Lent is about letting go of the things that distract us from living our faith more authentically. It is a time of conditioning, like practice before a big game, and the time we spend disciplining ourselves now will better dispose us for life in heaven. We ought never to take our eyes off of our destination, which is to say, we ought never to take our eyes off of Christ. Who is Jesus? And how do we come to know him? These questions are at the heart of our readings today. So, let’s explore what the Word of God is saying to us.

Christology is the study of who Jesus is. So, who is Jesus? Many of us likely have a canned answer for this question: Jesus is the Son of God. But, does that tell us everything about him? Jesus is also the son of Mary. Does that not provide another facet to who he is? Jesus is also the Son of David, the King, which makes him the Messiah. He is also a prophet like Isaiah or Elijah; he is a teacher of the Law, like Moses; he is a healer; and having taken upon himself our humanity, he is also our brother. So, the study of Christology is quite extensive because it looks at each of the facets of who Jesus is and seeks to know him more fully, as we all should.

Getting to know Jesus isn’t always easy. Our culture and the world today are at odds with our faith in Christ. It is as if these are directly opposed to one another. There was a time when our faith informed the world, now it would seem Facebook and Twitter tell the Church how to operate. Is that what the Church is? Some kind of quasi-religious institution that does whatever the culture says; or is the Church the institution founded by the Apostles on the authority of Christ, who said even to St. Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Mt. 16:23). This Church, founded upon the rock of St. Peter, is the continuation of what Jesus started over 2,000 years ago extending on into eternity. This is our true connection with the Divine and, as such, ought to be our source of inspiration for the way we live our life out there in the world.

Given the challenge of living a truly authentic Christian life, St. Paul offers Timothy this encouragement, saying, “Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” He goes on to describe the importance of living the Gospel because it is through the Gospel we have all been called to a holy life, having been saved by Christ, who destroyed death, and now gives us the grace to live according to God’s plan. And what is God’s plan? That we might come to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this life so that we might be happy with him forever in the next. How we live this is different for each of us because we are all fearfully, wonderfully made in God’s image, and called to use our unique gifts and talents for the good of others. Timothy went on to become a bishop for the early Church. What is God calling us to do for the Church today?

St. Paul shows the importance of what has been revealed to us through the Gospel, namely, that we are to hold fast to what we have learned. In other words, we have to persevere in faith. Abraham shows us this kind of perseverance by the way he responds to God’s invitation. When the Lord spoke to him, saying, “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you,” the Bible tells us very simply: “Abram went as the Lord directed him.” He did this not because the world told him to, but becuase God did, and a God he did not yet know or understand. Yet, his response to God is a model of faith for us all. That is why we call Abraham our father in faith. What is God calling us to do today?

This notion of the Lord directing us is important with respect to our Gospel account of the Transfiguration. After Jesus was transfigured and Moses and Elijah appeared, the voice of God spoke to Jesus’ disciples saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Once again, we have the Christological statement from God the Father, that Jesus is the Son of God, but we also have two significant historical figures present with him, Moses and Elijah, representing both the Law and the Prophets. Yet, what does God say: “This is my beloved Son…listen to him.” That is to say, Jesus is the culmination of all that the Law and the Prophets ever taught, and rightly so, because as the Incarnate Word of God, it was him speaking through them all along.

On this second Sunday of Lent, let us reflect on this question: What is God calling us to do today? And as we turn to the Eucharist, let us approach the altar with that question in mind, and through our communion with Christ, may the Lord speak to our hearts today and throughout these forty days.