Second Sunday of Lent, February 17, 2008

Homily, Sunday, February 17, 2008

Our Holy Word today shows us Our Lord taking three of his Apostles up a mountain. It says his clothes suddenly became dazzling white as light and his face shone like the sun. The two giants of God's word, Moses and Elijah appeared to them and they were conversing with Our Lord. Suddenly a thick cloud came upon them and out came the voice we heard at his baptism saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, listen to him.

This was the taste of Heaven, a glimpse of how heaven feels like. It says, it was so good, so nice that Peter, who never hold back words from his mouth, spontaneously said, “Lord, it is good to be here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

Brothers and sisters, that's how wonderful it is to be in Heaven. It fills you with absolute contentment. You are in the presence of the Almighty God, his Angels and Saints. You can't ask for more. This was to give them a taste of their destiny and the destination where they were going to be escorting the people of God to.

You remember in the Old Testament where God took Moses up a high mountain and showed him the Promised Land?  “Go up on Mount Nebo, here in the Abarim Mountains . . . and view the land of Canaan which I am giving to the Israelites as their possession . . . You may indeed view the land at a distance, but you shall not enter the land...” (Deut. 32:49; 34:1) Our Lord Jesus was doing the same right here with his three Apostles who are now about to take the seat of Moses and Elijah. 

In our culture, it is also customary to hold in major cities, what is called “The Taste of such and such a city.” During that week people sample all the different foods from diverse ethnicities. People get to see and appreciate the diversity of dances, music, food and drinks, dress from different ethnic backgrounds. In a similar way, Our Lord is giving the three apostles a tour of heaven. The Feast of the Transfiguration is the “Open House” of Heaven, Our Lord's home that can also be our home, and we are invited to come to Heaven.

This tour of Heaven comes right after Peter had professed that Our Lord was the Messiah, but later opposed Our Lord for allowing himself to be apprehended by the chief priests and scribes, be tortured to death. “God forbid such a thing should happen to you, My Lord,” he said. That's when Our Lord said, “Get behind me, Satan. You think like humans, not as God thinks.”

This truth was hard on the Apostles that this tragedy was going to happen to their Lord. They did not take the news well, so this Transfiguration experience was reassuring to them that all will be all right. All is within God's plan. Suffering and death do not have the last word. Resurrection and Life conquers all. If Moses and Elijah crossed the river of death to Heaven, then death is not the end, but just a passage. Now that Peter knew what Heaven feels like, his words “Lord, it is good to be here . . .” were in fact an expression like you hear use today, “Once you get to heaven you won't go back,” because it is so good to be with God. The church calls that experience of heaven, the Beatific Vision of God.

This would strengthen the Apostles in the future when they have to go through trials and tribulations, persecution and death, because they now know what is in store for them. They will embrace their suffering. This experience will come handy to sustain them. They won't have to cave in to their trials.

St. Paul, another Apostle, also reports that he had a similar experience. He said, speaking humbly of himself, “I know of someone who was taken to the seventh Heaven.” God does that when you go through the valley full of your tears. He puts honey along the way to soothe your wounds and encourage you to keep coming to him, and not give up. This Transfiguration experience accomplished the Apostles in the similar way. That why St. Paul in the Second Reading says to Timothy his successor, “Beloved, bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.” He knows first hand about the strength God gives those who suffer on his account. He feeds them with honey from the rock of Christ.

APPLICATION:
See you pains and suffering through the God's view, not from the human point of view. To you too, St. Paul says, “bear your share of hardships for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.”

Embrace your cross. Before it is Easter, it has got to be Good Friday. Before the crown, comes the cross. Before dawn comes the darkest hour of the night. Before resurrection comes crucifixion. Before you get into the transfigured glorified body, you have to first be disfigured, like clay in the potter's hands. Pain only beats you into the shape, image and likeness of God.  Don't see them as curses but as blessings in disguise. We have got to go through this crucible of fire. Before it becomes iron that sustains buildings, the disfigured ore has to go through the crucible of fire. Before the Apostles could be tough men of valor who sustain the edifice of the church and strengthen their own brothers, they first had to be tapped like metal.

SACRAMENTS:
We too have had moments of transfiguration experiences, and we continue to. When we were baptized we were transfigured into the “beloved sons and daughters” of God of whom he could publicly be proud of, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him,” God said of Our Lord at the Transfiguration Mountain. God said the exact same word about Our Lord after Our Lord's own baptism. So, baptism transfigures us, and God becomes proud of us.

Baptism is not a one-time thing, though. It is ongoing. It started then. Original sin was obliterated; but we are continually emerging from the waters configured in the image and likeness of God each minute of the day. We are son and daughters of God in becoming. That is why we still sprinkle ourselves with holy water each time we enter the doors of the church. To remind ourselves that we are still transfiguring. We are still being cleansed from out personal sin which the after mirth consequences of the original sin.

LENT:
Lent is that period of time where we aggressively go on the offensive against Satan and sin. We beat ourselves into shape by our spiritual exercises of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, just as people beat themselves to shape with physical exercises. With fasting we put ourselves on the driver's seat of our bodies, passions and appetites. This world would like us to believe that our appetites are in charge and we can't control them. We are declaring this Lent that God made man in charge of the world, not the world in charge of man. It is not my appetite for cigarettes that will dictate how many I will smoke per day. I reserve the right to determine that. The same with foods, snacks, alcohol, sex, spending, gambling. This Lent we cultivate virtue and get rid of vice and sin. Sin disfigures, virtue trans and configures. Sin and death covers us with dirt. Virtues like charity expressed in almsgiving brushes the dirt of sin off our body and soul so that it glows and glorified in Christ. So does prayer transforms us. One does not get out of prayer the same.

CONFESSION AS OUR TRANSFIGURATION SACRAMENT:
We also frequent the sacrament of confession during this Lent. Whenever we enter the
confessional, it's almost like we (and it really happens) go down with Christ into the tomb, buried with sin, but we emerge with resurrected with transfigured bodies and souls when we step out of the confessional.

Getting into the confessional is like getting into the sonar, and we emerge from it with our bodies and souls bearing a nice looking tan. And God cannot help himself but exclaim, “This is my beloved son/daughter in whom I am well pleased.” EUCHARIST AS OUR TRANSFIGURATION SACRAMENT: When we eat Christ's body and drink his blood, in the state of grace of course, these elements transfigure us into themselves so that we are in fact one body of Christ, one spirit in Christ, one faith in Christ. We are transformed into Christ's blood brothers and sisters he never had. And God seeing us cannot but exclaim, “Oh! Do I love my son! Oh! How much I love my daughter!” which is what He basically meant when He said of Our Lord, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” When He said, “Listen to Him,” it's almost like saying, “Look at Him. He is beautiful. I love him so much.”

Finally, when all is said and done, we shall be asleep and Christ will raise up to life eternal with Him with the words he used on the 3 Apostles. “Rise, do not be afraid.”

God Bless you.