The Second
Sunday of Lent (A)
Dear
brothers and sisters,
It
is a curious thing that the Lord Jesus today “took Peter, James, and John his
brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves” (Matthew 17:1). Jesus
often went away by himself to pray, but he did not usually take anyone with
him. Why did he take these three and not the others? If we remember the ancient
Roman adage that nomen est omen, that
the name is a sign, the answer may be found in their names.
Jesus
took them up Mount Tabor, a solitary mountain rising almost 2,000 feet above
the plain surrounding it. Curiously, the name “Tabor” means “the coming light,”
and so we can speculate that Jesus wished to reveal something of the light of
his Face to them.[1]
After all, Saint Matthew tells us when Jesus was transfigured before Peter,
James, and John, “his face shone like the sun” (Matthew 17:2). Still, why did
Jesus take these three, and not three others?
That
great finder of lost things and doctor of the Gospels, Saint Anthony of Padua,
tells us that “these three Apostles, the special companions of Jesus Christ,
may be understood as three virtues of our soul, without which no one can climb
the mountain of light.”[2]
What virtues, then, do we find in their names?
The
name “Peter” means “understanding,” and he who truly understands himself knows
himself to be a sinner. He also knows that God is thrice holy. For this reason,
Jesus took
Peter, and [we] too must take Peter, [we] who believe in Jesus and hope for
salvation from Jesus. Peter is the acknowledgment of [our] sins, which consist
in these three things: pride in the heart, lust in the flesh, and avarice in
the world.[3]
We see this among the first words Peter
said to Jesus when he was called on the Sea of Galilee: “Depart for me, for I
am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Here, Peter demonstrated a profound
understanding of himself. Do we have the same understanding of ourselves? Do we
recognize our sinfulness?
Even so, while recognizing and acknowledging
his sinfulness, Peter’s pride kept him from always following Jesus’ lead, even though
he knew him to be “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). It was
Peter’s pride that led him to say to the divine Master when he predicted his
Passion, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you” (Matthew 16:22).
Later yet, as Jesus was being taken away to be crucified, Peter’s eyes met the Lord’s
and Peter “went out and wept bitterly” because of his sinful pride (cf. Luke22:61, 62). When was the last time we wept because of our sinful pride? If
Peter repeatedly acknowledged his sins to the Lord Jesus, you and I must do the same. This is why Jesus took
Peter with him up the mountain, to teach us the importance of acknowledging and
confessing our sins.
The name “James” means “wrestler” or
“supplanter.” We must take him with us, together with Peter, because James “is
the supplanting of these vices,” the vices of pride, of lust, and of greed, “so
that [we] may tread the pride of [our] spirit under the foot of reason; so that
[we] may mortify the lust of [our] flesh, and repress the vanity of the
deceitful world.”[4]
It is only after acknowledging and confessing our sins that we can wrestle with
these vices and seek to uproot them from our hearts. Jesus took James with him up
the mountain to each us the importance of wrestling with our weaknesses and of seeking
to overcome them, instead of being complacent about them.
Especially in these Lenten days, we are each
called to take up the weapons of prayer, of fasting, and of alms-giving as we seek
to supplant our sins. It is through a more intentional and increased use of the
spiritual weapon of daily prayer, of open and honest communication with God, that
we can come to better understand our failures to love both God and neighbor and
so humble our pride even as we come to a deeper understanding of the merciful
love displayed for us upon the Cross. Whenever we turn to the Lord in prayer,
we not only see that we are sinners, but, more importantly, we see how much God
loves us despite our sinfulness. This is the message of the Cross; we should
keep it daily before our eyes if we wish to diminish the pride in our hearts.
By wielding the spiritual weapon of fasting,
we can better reign in our passions and harness their energies for a greater purpose,
for a continual growth in holiness, for an ever greater conformity to Christ. A
fast from both foods and pleasures, whether freely undertaken or embraced in humble
obedience, “enables us to grow in the spirit
of the Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of his suffering
brother” and helps us ”make a
statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger.”[5]
By fasting, we turn away from the lust in the flesh – which comes from an inordinate
focus on the self – to recognize Christ present in those around us. Seeing their
needs, our hearts can pierced by the same compassion that is Christ’s.
And through alms-giving, we can counter
our greed by gladly giving away what we have received as a gift from God. It is
alms-giving that “teaches us the generosity of love” because it is “a concrete expression of charity, a theological
virtue that demands interior conversion to [the] love of God and neighbor, in
imitation of Jesus Christ, who, dying on the cross, gave His entire self for us.”[6] When we recognize our sinfulness and see both the spiritual
and financial poverty of our neighbor, we can set out to combat the avarice in the
world through alms-giving by giving not just of our things, but of ourselves.
The name “John” means “the grace of
God.” We should take John with us so that the grace of God “may enlighten [us]
to recognize the evil things [we] have done, and help [us] in the good things
[we] have begun to do.”[7] Without
the grace of God, we cannot truly comprehend our sinfulness or God’s holiness; we
cannot experience the profundity of his love; and we cannot strive to supplant our
sins. This is why Jesus took John with him up the mountain, to teach us to ask that
the grace of God go always before us and follow always after us.
We are too often far too willing to remain
on the plain. It takes effort to climb the mountain. It can be difficult and painful
to reach new heights of holiness and so we content ourselves with mediocrity. Jesus,
though, does not want us to be mediocre; he wants us to be saints (cf. II Timothy1:9). He wants us to be able to look upon the brilliant beauty of his Face without
blush or shame.
Let us, then, with Saint Anthony of Padua,
ask the Lord Jesus
to
make us climb from this vale of tears to the mountain of a holy life; so that we
may have the form of [his] Passion printed upon us, and be strengthened with the
meekness or mercy and the zeal for justice. Then, in the day of judgment, we may
be found fit to be overshadowed by the bright cloud; and hear the voice of joy,
gladness and exultation, the voice which says: “Come, you who are blessed by my
Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew
25:34).[8]
Amen.
[1] Saint Anthony of Padua, Sermon for the Second Sunday of Lent, 3.
In Sermons for Sundays and Festivals,
Volume I: General Prologue, Sundays from Septuagesima to Pentecost. Paul
Spilsbury, trans. (Padua: Edizioni Messagero Padova, 2007), 102.
[2] Ibid., 101.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Pope Benedict XVI, Message for Lent 2009.
[6] Pope Benedict XVI, Message for Lent 2008, 5, 3.
[7] Saint Anthony of Padua, Sermon for the Second Sunday of Lent, 3.
[8] Ibid., 14.
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