March 20: Second Sunday of Lent

Scripture readings:

• Genesis 12:1-4
• Psalm 33:4-5, 18-22
• 2 Timothy 1:8-10
• Matthew 17:1-9  

Synopsis:
Each Sunday during Lent the Old Testament reading highlights a key moment in salvation history. This week’s “moment” is God’s calling of Abraham and the promise of future blessing. First, God promises that Abraham will be given land and become the father of a “great nation.” To be a great nation, or a nation of any kind, you first need land. Second, God will make Abraham’s “name” great. To “make one’s name great” is an ancient idiom signifying the establishment of a dynasty. The third promise is that through Abraham “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” After the fall (last week’s first reading) humankind became alienated from God. With Abraham, God begins the process of undoing the damage done by Adam and Eve, gradually leading his people to the restoration of unity between God and man. 

While the first reading looks forward to a future blessing, the second reading looks back to the moment when God restored that unity in Christ. This was God’s plan: a “design bestowed in Christ Jesus before time began.”  The promise of God to Abraham—that all the nations of earth shall be blessed through him—was fulfilled in Christ. Those who are in Christ have been called, like Abraham, to a holy life according to God’s plan.

The Gospel reading on the second Sunday of Lent is always the Transfiguration. In the previous chapter Jesus had revealed for the first time that he was to suffer and die in Jerusalem. Peter, James and John are given a foretaste of heavenly glory to strengthen them for the trail that lies ahead.  The voice from heaven, “This is my beloved Son,” confirms Peter’s confession of faith in the previous chapter. When the disciples saw him transfigured they fell prostrate—an act of worship and adoration.  Jesus reassures the disciples saying: “Rise. Do not be afraid.” 

Key verse:  “And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun” (Mt 17: 2).

Catechism of the Catholic Church: “The transfiguration gives us a foretaste of Christ’s glorious coming, when he ‘will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body.’ But it also recalls that ‘it is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.’” (No. 556).

Pope Benedict XVI: “The appearance of his glory is connected with the Passion motif. Jesus’ divinity belongs with the cross—only when we put the two together do we recognize Jesus correctly. John expressed this intrinsic interconnectedness of cross and glory when he said that the cross is Jesus’ ‘exaltation’ and that his exaltation is accomplished in no other way than in the cross.”

Life application: The transfiguration of Jesus gave the disciples a vision of heavenly glory to strengthen them for the journey ahead. Every Mass is, in a way, a kind of “transfiguration” that gives us a foretaste of heavenly glory where Christ is exalted. The Eucharist sustains us in our Lenten observances and strengthens us to bear the trials and tribulations of life as we look forward in hope to our heavenly home.