FATHER RICH'S GOSPEL REFLECTION

Second Sunday of Lent

A - February 17, 2008

The story of the Transfiguration of Jesus is rich in meaning and interpretation.  During the Lenten Season (it's always given on the second Sunday of Lent) we view its message through the lens of these forty days.

A mega motif of Christian spirituality is conversion.  It receives a prominent place in the scriptural readings and prayers of the Lenten season.  From the signing of ashes on Ash Wednesday when an alternative formula while imposing these burnt residues of last year's palms is, "Repent and believe the good news," until the threshold of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday during Holy Week, our minds are directed to the purpose of our Lenten observance.  We are to enter into dying and rising with Jesus. To die and rise with Christ is another way of saying conversion.

At the Transfiguration the voice from the cloud says, "This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him."  This command from the Father sums up the process of conversion.  Listening to Christ, implies obeying him and doing what he did.  When we listen to Christ, we pledge ourselves to openness - to change whatever in us is contrary to the message of Jesus (dying) and living the Gospel values as articulated by Jesus (rising).

"All is grace," St. Paul wrote.  Therefore we rely not on our own wisdom and strength but on the wisdom and strength of the Holy Spirit.  We pray as if it all depends on God.  We work as if it all depends on us.