MARCH 17, 2019
9:00 AM, 5:30 PM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES
215 days ago, in the village of Westport, County Mayo, Ireland … our bold group of American pilgrims (and one guy from Singapore) were planning the next day’s climb up Croagh Phadrig – the mountain of St. Patrick … where it is claimed that in the year 441 AD, St. Patrick himself fasted and prayed for 40 days.
Typically climbed on the last Sunday of July, known as Reek Sunday – devout pilgrims proceed barefoot up the boulder-strewn path. We were two weeks late, but that evening, over pints of Guinness and Smithwicks … our boldness increased … and we plotted our penitential hardships for the next day.
That next morning, following Mass at the ruins of Murrisk Abbey, all but one brave young lady opted to keep their shoes on. Nonetheless, we scrambled up, and for myself, driven by zeal … or perhaps the fear of running out of steam … I pushed for the summit.
There were plenty of falls, rain, and mud. And in the photos at the top, I have a joyful yet pained expression on my face.
For the record, down was much more difficult than up … but after a couple of hours, I was back at sea level … humbled, wet, dirty … yet victorious, joyful, and exhausted.
Today is the Second Sunday of Lent.
In today’s readings we begin with God’s covenant with Abram … who will soon be renamed Abraham. Catching up to today’s reading … what we have is a 75 year old man who has travelled roughly 1,000 miles on foot – from Ur to Haran; and then Haran to Beersheba – with all of his livestock and possessions; as well as an entourage of servants and slaves.
God asks for a sacrifice, and as Abram waits and prays through the day and into the night … God’s presence is revealed as a “smoking fire … [and] a flaming torch” moving within the sacrificial offerings.
Abram’s personal sacrifice was an enormous pilgrimage of inestimable hardship. He left everything he ever knew to follow the promises of God. And he is rewarded by the vague future promise of what would be left to his descendants … the descendants of one old man who at that moment … at the age of 75 had no children … and no earthly reason to hope that this would come to pass.
In the Gospel, Our Lord reveals His Glory to Peter, James, and John in the Transfiguration. They are overcome and frightened at the sight of Christ in His glory – revealed in the dazzling brilliance of the Holy Spirit, the voice of the Father, and the presence of the Son.
St. Paul points out that “[o]ur citizenship is in heaven” where we await the coming of Jesus Christ to transform us into conformity with His glory.
We live our life in pilgrimage – perhaps not necessarily 1,000 miles on foot – but as we walk through our days with Christ as our guide … we bear the hardships of this life with our eyes focused on eternity … and with a hope of sharing in the glory to come.
God calls us out of our comfort zone – asking us to do what is difficult – in order to fill us with His transforming grace – so that we might go beyond mere human efforts in living the Christian life.
The eastern Church sees each liturgy as an expression of the Transfiguration. The Old and New Laws are revealed to us … and Christ is made present – Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity – through the power of the Holy Spirit … and we call out to God in boldness as we recite the Lord’s Prayer … daring to call Him “Father.”
We are on Tabor … and Christ has come to us in Word … and He will come to us in Sacrament. Let us marvel in awe at His glory … revealed to us … right here … right now.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ … let us pray to be awestruck … so that we might be overcome by the marvelous and privileged place we have been given through the Sacramental covenants of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist. May the glory of God fill us … so that as we encounter His presence here this morning, we might be transformed into the image of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, as God’s holy ones.
