HOMILY OF THE 2ND SUNDAY IN LENT — YEAR A

HOMILY OF THE 2ND SUNDAY IN LENT — YEAR A

HOMILY THEME: CALL OF ABRAHAM

BY: Fr. Mike Olumba

Gen 12:1-4a/Psalm 33:4-5,18-20,22/2 Tim 1:8b-10/Matt. 17:1-9

Abraham was called to leave his father’s land. In the call of Abraham, we see also the call of each man/woman by God. Just as it was with Abraham, we are called ourselves also to go from point A to another place, point B. This call could imply a spacial movement. It could be a movement from one state of life to another. It could also be simply a moral call, implying a moral change. This moral change is also implied in every other call. Each call implies quitting one’s comfort zone to go to another zone away from one’s comforts. God’s call has never being and will never be to consolidate our comfort. It rather disturbs our acquired, presumed or settled comfort, though the comfort or a greater comfort may return later.

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In the season of Lent, we are called to quit our comfort zones, not just our sinful zone but our ordinary comfort zone. Our sinful zone should not be allowed in the first place to retain us even for a day waiting for the time of Lent.

The gospel for every second Sunday of lent is the Transfiguration passage according to the different gospels. (Year A is Mathew, B is Mark, C is Luke). In the gospel passage of today, sometime later after the Desert of Temptations of last Sunday (where Jesus shows us the spiritual personal battle through which he went in his struggle against the powers of evil and the person of the Devil ever present and seeking the obedience of our heart); the Church presents us today Jesus on the Mountain of Transfiguration. In the Lenten liturgy, the story of the Transfiguration takes on its full meaning, following that of Jesus’ temptations in the desert. The three gospels (of Mathew, Mark and Luke) place this episode at different moments in the ministry of Christ. Before courageously setting out on the road to Calvary and to Jerusalem, Jesus experiences a moment of fullness in his Transfiguration, where the reality of his election by God the Father becomes completely evident to him. This certainty made him embrace the mystery to come, the suffering of his cross and the death thereof, and the glory of his resurrection, from which comes the transformation of his face and the glory that surrounded him.

Before they arrived here, Jesus spoke about the death that was awaiting him in Jerusalem. To this Peter said, “No, God forbid”. (Matthew 16: 13-28: Transfiguration follows this in Matthew 17: 1-9). (There and then Jesus started thinking of what to do to help the disciples overcome this idea and resistance to God’s program. He thought of helping them accept his death in line with the Father’s will): The Scandal of the Cross/Ogbagharii banyere onwuike n’elu osisi nke obe! “How do I show them the glory that is to be mine after the Stations of the Cross, the Pain, the Suffering and the ignominious Death? If they can see this glory, it might help them overcome the Scandal of the Cross!”

This glimpse into the glory of Resurrection happened in the context of Prayer:
Prayer might appear dry to us, but it is the door to God’s heart. Done well, prayer opens the vistas to God. In the life of Christ often we see him doing something at prayer or after prayer. There is no major event in his life that was not preceded by prayers or moments of intense prayer. The Transfiguration comes again to draw us to prayers. Prayers can make our banal moments (time) or banal spaces (place) into a Mountain of Transfiguration.

Moses and Elijah:
In between the two, Moses and Elijah, (i.e. the Law/the Lawgiver and the Chief of the Prophets), Jesus shows that they indeed ceded their place and power over to him. He now becomes the Law, the Law Giver and the Prophet, and the Voice of the Prophets. It was indeed of him that the Prophets spoke. He was also the Word spoken by the Prophets. In between the two, he assumes full power. Their presence there on top of the Mountain was also to give a legal (Moses) and prophetic seal (Elijah) to the work of Christ. His person, his life and his work were all in fulfilment of the law and the prophets and the program prepared in the Father’s mind before time began.

There are moments in life when we would like to stop the hand of time and of the clock, as if to experience eternity here below. There are moments in life when infinity seems to touch human finitude to give us a taste of what is promised to us. There are encounters in life that have the flavour of God’s happiness, gestures that we would like to perpetuate until the end of time; moments of happiness that we hope will never end; evenings that we don’t want to end; music that we would like to listen to non-stop. (In a song by Dalida: “The Last Dance”: Sometimes there are choruses stronger than wine that make your head to spin…). There are Mkpako, Egwuonwa and Evenings spent with friends or relatives that we wish that they last forever. There are tastes we want to keep in our mouths forever. (Think of your childhood experiences when with a tasty piece of meat in the mouth, you didn’t want to swallow it or spit it out because it was so nice and tasty. You wanted to have the taste in your mouth forever…). God can sometimes use these passing moments to show us glimpses of eternity. The Transfiguration of Jesus was one of those moments where/when we would have liked to make time to stand still just as Peter and his companions wished.

Beyond the Jesus that these friends thought they knew very well, having followed Him for three years, on the mountain where He took them to pray, Peter, James, and John discovered something beyond what they knew of Him: the glorious Christ! God gave them this experience after Jesus announced to them that He was to be arrested, suffer, be put to death, and then resurrect on the third day and that “where the Master goes, the disciple must also go”.

It is like a class of children whom the teacher wanted to teach the virtue or zeal of tireless work, but they were easily tired. So, the class teacher shows them images of children who have worked hard and the beautiful rewards that they got at last. And he adds that you will never be able to share in these rewards or glory without applying yourselves to your duty and studies diligently.

But all these; and every good experience here below, no matter how beautiful they are, they are all bound by the limits of time and space.
But amidst these, there is always work to be done. Thus, we have often to descend from the Mountain of Joy, Glory, Eternity to attend to the temporal work awaiting to be done at the foot of the mountain.

We must be careful, in any case, not to glorify suffering, invent it, or invite it unnecessarily. There is enough of it here below for everyone. We have a duty to reduce it and even eliminate it completely when and if possible. We also have a duty not to afflict others with unnecessary suffering. But in doing all this, we must not delude ourselves. We must recognise the mysterious link between human life here below and suffering. This human life starts here in the dark pleasure of the bedroom and passes through the pain of the labour room for the mother, child and the father, before we all go into the pains and joys of the Valley of Tears. Thus, suffering is real, but the necessity of suffering remains a mystery…

-Since our Master knows something about it, and must go through it, the Father asks us to, “Listen to him!”
-Listen to Him so as to know how to live and even how to die…
-Listen to Him, so that your suffering, your pain, your efforts will not be in vain. United to his, they will no longer be wasted efforts. No!
Let us pray that He will speak to us and make us feel and realise our need of Him.
Let us pray that He will support those who are tested today by suffering, pain, illness, recent bereavement and persecution.
May these moments become also our consolations in moments of loss, of toil, of pain and of suffering!–Amen!

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