Gospel Reflection for the 2nd Sunday of Lent – March 5th

By Fr Brian Maher OMI

Gospel Reflection Sunday March 5th 2023, Second Sunday of Lent

It is human to seek reassurance at times. In moments of self-doubt or when we feel overwhelmed by situations or events, it is healthy to reach out to someone we trust, not so they can solve or take away the issues we face, but simply to be told that we are OK and following the right path. Doing this is not a sign of weakness, as we sometimes think, but an acknowledgement that we travel our life journey, not alone, but in the company of others. When making important decisions or facing times of trial it is actually important to take time out to seek validation from those we trust and call friends. It frequently gives us the mental resolve we need to continue along the path we have begun.

Today’s Gospel is, for me, one of those moments in Jesus’ life. It comes in the middle of Matthew’s Gospel, when his ministry is already well shaped and he is aware of the growing criticism he faces from those in power. The Kingdom of God that he is proclaiming is ‘new’ and challenges almost everything the Jewish people are expecting. The Kingdom which Jesus states is “very near” will not only be for the Jewish people but for everyone. It will not raise up the Chosen People as victors and subjugate others, but will be ushered in with peace, gentleness and forgiveness.

It is a Kingdom understandably feared by the powerful and wealthy, who will lose their imagined ‘right’ to God’s favour and who will be forced to share God’s wonders with the poor and excluded. It is a Kingdom they cannot accept. In their words and looks, in the rumours and gossip his disciples pick up, Jesus knows they will try to silence him, by force if he refuses to change his message and vision.

All of the Gospels link the Transfiguration closely with Jesus’ last a fatal journey to Jerusalem. It comes at a moment when he badly needs the reassurance of God that what he is proclaiming is the true Kingdom and that he must continue along the path he has chosen.

It seems also that something new is happening within Jesus at this time. He speaks, not as someone proclaiming the Kingdom, but almost as if he is the Kingdom. “Tell no one about this vision until the Son of Man rises from the dead.” suggests that the Kingdom of God is not just being proclaimed by Jesus, but actually resides in him. Within himself there seems to be a dawning awareness that he himself is the Kingdom being revealed by God, a Kingdom which will be witnessed and validated with his own Resurrection from the Dead.

Coming down from the mountain Luke’s version of this story tells us that Jesus “steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem…” The Transfiguration, therefore, was an important moment for Jesus. After it his way forward is clear and he is willing, and will be able, to face the rejection, betrayal and suffering he sees coming.

Jesus needed this moment of reassurance on the mountain. For me, it is wonderful to imagine Jesus, exhausted, afraid and feeling very much alone, heading up the mountain with his three closest friends, Peter, John and James, in need of human companionship and a personal time with God. In it I do not see a ‘weak’ Jesus, but a strong person who recognises his need for others and for God, and who has courage enough to admit it.

What a different world we would inhabit if our leaders could see the effect their decisions have on the individual lives of others. If they could only withdraw to a mountain in recognition of the common humanity they share with others, and there experience the pain and suffering their choices inflict on others, then I feel sure they would return from that mountain with their faces set to restore peace and end the suffering of their peoples.

What a different place our own lives might be if each one of us, this Lent, took time to climb our own mountains, listening openly to those we love and respect, and then returning with our faces set to do what needs to be done to restore peace and harmony to our families.

The story of the Transfiguration, as we read it in the Gospels, follows a structure or pattern which would be instantly understood by those hearing or reading it for the first time: The ‘mountain’ was where God lived, and where Moses, and the great prophet of the Old Testament, Elijah, went when they needed to talk with God. The transfiguration Jesus underwent – “his face shone like the sun” – is exactly the same as Moses underwent on Mount Sinai when he “talked with God, exactly as a man who talks to his friend”. The ‘bright cloud’ which descended and covered them with its shadow represented God’s presence to Moses. In the shadow of this cloud God speaks and is heard. For Moses, he spoke with God, “exactly as a man talks to a friend” (what a beautiful definition of prayer that is). For Jesus, it is a father talking to his “beloved Son.”

Those hearing or reading about this experience of Jesus on the mountain, would recognise immediately that what was being described was an intense, real and personal encounter between God and Jesus. Those with Jesus (his three friends) were frightened and didn’t understand what was happening. Jesus did understand and was comforted and reassured by the experience. In turn he reassured Peter, James and John, before continuing his journey to Jerusalem, where he would be betrayed, suffer and die…and three days later, rise from the Dead.

What actually happened on that mountain we can never know and how sad that is!

Imagine the incredible privilege of being there to witness, with the three disciples, the encounter of Father and Son, when perhaps Jesus, for the first time, recognised that the Kingdom he was talking about lived within him; the moment of awareness that the Kingdom of God was being made visible in his own life and that the Kingdom would, in fact, come through his own death and resurrection.

The experience might have been dramatic and visual with clouds, voices, bright lights and shining face, as the story describes… or it might have been deeply silent and personal.

A ‘moment of God’, an experience of the reality of God to us, is an experience which is beyond description. We may want to describe it, and we may try to find words and images which do it justice, but in the end all words fail. Perhaps the best words and images the first Christians could find were the words and images used to describe the encounter between God and Moses, where they spoke ‘like friends’ and where God’s covenant that “you will be my people and I will be your God” was sealed.

My own imagination sees a troubled and maybe uncertain Jesus, knowing in his heart he needed a time of solitude with God, setting off up the mountain. Perhaps, in his self-doubt, he also knew he needed the support and companionship of friends with him.

Once on the mountain, I see Jesus move away by himself to pray. Somewhere in that prayer he encounters, in a mystical and intense way, the presence of God to him. Maybe it was over some time or maybe it was a single moment, but his three companions say in him something that they knew with certainty was of God. They watched as their friend underwent a transformation of some kind. For some reason Peter, the man of impulse and action, became concerned and afraid for his friend. Maybe he feels he has to interrupt to make sure Jesus is OK. He says something meaningless and frivolous about putting up tents so they can stay there. Somehow this intervention breaks the moment and whatever Jesus was experiencing ended. Noticing that his companions were concerned about him, he reassures them that he is OK and together they return to the others to continue their journey.

But within Jesus there has been a change. Doubt has been replaced by growing certainty. Fear has been replaced by resolve and courage. Later, in his conversation with Pilate, he will state that his “Kingdom is not of this world”. He is now certain of this. His mission is not to proclaim the Kingdom of God, but within his own life to be the Kingdom of God.

On Good Friday, when we make that final journey of pain and humiliation with Jesus, let us remember today’s Gospel and Jesus’ experience on the mountain. The strength and resolve he has during his last moments come from the experience of God he had on that mountain. Despite the overwhelming pain and suffering, and not diminishing it in any way, the God who called him “beloved Son” and who assured him that his “favour rested on him”, is still there, quietly giving him the strength he needs to finish his mission on earth and to finally say, in tired triumph and peace, “It is finished”.

Many thanks,  

Brian.

If you have any comments, questions or thoughts on this scripture reflection, please feel welcome to email me at b.maher@oblates.ie

His face shone like the sun