FEBRUARY 25, 2018
12:00 NOON EXTRAORDINARY FORM (LATIN) MASSES
Today is the 2nd Sunday of Lent, in which today’s Gospel is the Transfiguration from St. Matthew.
In the eastern Church tradition, the Transfiguration is one of the Twelve Great Feasts. And in traditional iconography – that is the prayerfully produced images if the eastern Church – Christ is front and center, surrounded by a mandorla – that is encircled in Divine light; as well as bathed in light from above – symbolizing the voice of God the Father.
To the left and right of Our Lord are presented Moses – the Lawgiver; and Elijah – the greatest of the prophets.
The three apostles are shown either lying down, kneeling, or reeling – that is, blown away … staggering … by what they are witnessing.
St. Paul, in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians, presents succinctly God’s will for us.
For this is the will of God, your sanctification.Please consider this single line deeply. God’s will is not your comfort, or your temporal happiness, or even that you do what you will – as the world often presents.
God’s will is that we be made holy … that we be glorified … through the grace and mercy poured forth on us through the Sacraments of Holy Mother Church … for our sanctification.
This is the point of our various penitential exercises in the Holy Season of Lent – our sanctification. We give up those things that stand in the way of God … the things we love (with a small “L”) so that we might devote a larger portion of our personal efforts focusing on the Person whom we should Love (with a capital “L”) above all things – namely the Most Holy Trinity … God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ … let us pray that we might cooperate with God’s efforts to bring us to sanctification … let us put aside self-will, as well as the things that may overexcite our passion to the detriment of our relationship with Almighty God.
And let us persevere in our practices of penance as we progress through this Holy Lent. Drawing ever closer to the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
