Second Sunday of Lent

The theme of today’s gospel is found in Matthew 17:7: “Rise, and do not be afraid.” In the first reading God is asking Abraham to do something very hard, to get up and leave his homeland and his family to travel to a destination that God has not revealed. But God reassures Abraham, promising that not only will He bless him but that all nations will be blessed through him.

Similarly, in the second reading from 2nd Timothy, Paul encourages Timothy to bear the hardships that come with being a Christian with strength that God will provide. He goes on to say that it is not in our own strength, our own works, that our hope lies but in the death and resurrection of Christ. Yes, there will be death…but death, pain, hardship is not the end, the end is eternal life. Abraham seemed to be walking in uncharted territory, without an end in sight but He trusted God. Similarly Paul talks about the hardship inherent in the Christian’s path, but reminds us that this isn’t uncharted territory. We’re following the way laid for us by Jesus, the way that leads through death to life.

Going back to today’s Gospel passage, Jesus knows what lies ahead for His disciples and Himself. He knows that witnessing the terrifying torture that He will undergo will test His apostles’ faith to the limit. Indeed, many will fall away for a time, running from the perceived danger of pain and death. So Jesus reveals on the mountain His divinity and the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies found in the Old Testament (Malachi 3:23-24). Matthew relates this Transfiguration account in the framework of the Theophany on Mt Sinai in Exodus 19-24. Its details are intended to recall to the mind of the reader the parallels from Mt Sinai (the 7th day, three companions, the mountain, the shining faces of Moses and Jesus, the cloud, the fear of the people).

Jesus is revealing in no uncertain terms His divinity to His disciples, because He knows that what is coming will test them dreadfully. They need to know that what He will undergo He undergoes freely and of His own volition. At any time He could stop what will happen to Him as Lent draws on to Good Friday.

Evil, pain, death may look like they’ve won, that they’ve overcome goodness and light and God Himself. It may look like pain and death are the ultimate evil, to be avoided at all costs, but Jesus tells us, “Rise, and do not be afraid.”