February 28, 2010 SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT
28 FEBRUARY 2010, 5:15, 8:00, 10:30
READINGS: Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:28b-36
SAINT MARY PARISH, VIROQUA
Introduction: Every year on the Second Sunday of Lent we hear the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus from one of the gospel writers. This year it is from the account of Luke.
1. One of the most significant lines in his account is this. “Jesus took Peter, John and James up to the mountain to pray.” Do you recall when we meet this same trio going apart with Jesus? Yes, it is to the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus suffered his agony. Jesus surely knew that in order for them to endure the Gethsemane experience they needed the Mount Tabor experience. They had first to see the light on Jesus face in order to tolerate the agony that would follow; they needed to see white before they saw red. As you know, even then they didn’t handle the agony in the garden too well, but later they would come to understand it.
2. Now, believe it or not, we are also invited to have experiences like the apostles on Mount Tabor. We have to be open to them. Call them, if you will, epiphanies! Two priests were conversing with each other when one of them said, “If you don’t have at least three epiphanies a day, you are not paying attention.” What he means, of course, is that we must watch for manifestations of God’s presence in our daily lives.
a. Abraham had an epiphany when God revealed himself to him in today’s first reading.
b. The three apostles had an epiphany on Mount Tabor.
c. The disciples on the way to Emmaus on Easter night had an epiphany when Jesus broke bread in their presence.
d. A mother has an epiphany when she sees her young child share a toy with another.
e. Residents at the Fortney Hotel have an epiphany when parish members bring them their Sunday dinner.
f. We can have an epiphany when we view a sunset, or the popping out of green leaves in spring.
g. The saintly Thomas Merton had an epiphany when standing at the corner of 4th and Walnut in Louisville, Kentucky. Watching the people he suddenly realized how they, and he, were beloved of God. It changed his life.
h. The Irish speak about an epiphany happening whenever something easily reveals God; they say it’s as if a thin veil were lifted, and God is behind it.
i. You and I have an epiphany when we listen carefully to his Holy Word and when we taste the food of this table.
3. Now, there’s one more thing. We can also become epiphanies for others. A missionary told this tale. Some African Christians were sitting about at a retreat. The subject was how best to spread the Gospel. Various methods were suggested running from literature to videos to radio announcements. Finally a young woman arose. She said, "When we judge a pagan village is ready for the Lord Jesus, the first people we send in is a Christian family. It is their lives that will inspire the villagers to think seriously about becoming Christian. They are better than a hundred books or videos or radio announcements. They will be the keyhole through which others will see the Lord Christ. To spread the Church Christians must not so much promote as attract." The woman's views carried the day.
Conclusion: Jesus was transfigured before his apostles so they could endure the hard times coming. He teaches us to be watchful for epiphanies in our own lives; he teaches us to be epiphanies for others. With the apostles we can say, “It is good for us, Lord, to be here.”