rise, and do not be afraid

Homily

2nd Sunday of Lent A

St. Lawrence Catholic Center at the University of Kansas

20 March 2011

Daily Readings

JMJ AMDG +m

But Jesus came and touched them saying, Rise, and do not be afraid!

This is admittedly a curious and obscure line from today's Gospel that I'm picking out for our meditation today, but I think it could be an interpretive key for the Transfiguration. Jesus' reassuring gesture and words are small compared to the cacophony of activity taking place on the mountaintop and in the heavens, with incredible visions, blinding light and booming voices, but it is an important gesture nonetheless. Jesus came and touched them saying, rise, and do not be afraid!

Obviously, Peter, James and John had plenty of which to be afraid. You and I would surely have fallen down prostrate out of fear as well, if we hadn't died instantly of fright. The chosen apostles were seeing something that no one else had ever seen. The heavens were opened. They get to see the truth of Jesus' promised resurrection not only in the transfigured body of Jesus, but in the appearance of Moses and Elijah. It is one thing to see Jesus bring heaven to earth in the form of his great signs and his teaching with authority. It is quite another to see and to hear what had been forever promised but never experienced on this side of heaven - the truth of the resurrection and the reality of the heavenly Jerusalem, to which we are called and within which every human desire finds its fulfillment. In a recent lecture about heaven here at St. Lawrence, John-Mark Miravale reminded students of how beautiful heaven really is; that if we were ever granted a real preview of it, that it would be impossible to think about anything else, or to turn our gaze away from it.

We get an understanding then, of how thrilling was the metamorphosis taking place not only in Jesus, but in Peter, James and John as well. Because heaven was opened in such a dramatic way, there was an instant demand for Peter, James and John to die to themselves and to spiritually pass over from death to eternal life. For once we get a glimpse of the beauty of heaven, which at present eye has not seen, nor ear ever heard, what God has prepared for those who love him, then it becomes impossible for us to think of anything else or desire anything else.

Peter, James and John turn away in fear, and who can blame them. For when given opportunities in the moment to pass over from death to life, we usually prefer to stay where we are. The dying to self that enables dramatic change within us is usually not our first choice; it is a risk that we save as a last resort. The metamorphosis of the Transfiguration is too much, too soon. We would rather wait and pass through the gate of death to eternal life at the last possible moment, only as a backup plan, our last resort, after squeezing every bit of life out of this world that we can.

What Peter, James and John see in the Lord is that although the cross still lay before him, our Lord was already perfectly detached from his life in the world. He could receive it as a gift, as willed by the Father, but he was not holding on to it. He was free to give it away at a moment's notice. The Transfiguration was not too sudden or dramatic for Jesus; it was something He was always ready for. Our Lord had already passed from death to life even as he walked among them, was already in the process of laying down his own life, had already decided that at every moment he would do not his own will, but the will of the one who sent him. So our Lord even as he walked among them was ready to be transfigured, was already living the eternal life from which he came and to which he would return through the glory of the Resurrection. Jesus' future Resurrection was thus a present reality at the moment of the Transfiguration, and the Transfiguration becomes a key for understanding the Resurrection not as a distant wish for the apostles, but as something that they were invited to begin living from the moment of the Transfiguration onward.

Jesus touches his chosen disciples at the Transfiguration, for his touching us, our being one with him in and through our bodies is the mechanism of the bodily resurrection. Then he tells them to rise, to begin participating even now in the truth of the Resurrection. He tells them that now they have experienced what heaven is like, to not be afraid to pass over from death to life even at this very moment. He invites them to rise and to begin living the metamorphosis of the Resurrection, and to do so with him, and in him and through him. Of course Jesus' suffering, death and Resurrection is something that still lie ahead, and something he will eventually have to do alone. He tells his disciples that where he is going, they cannot come. But he knows that they will follow later, and he shows through the Transfiguration that faith in the Resurrection is a prerequisite for those who will try to undergo the same metamorphosis they will see the Lord accomplish at Calvary, for those who will indeed after his Ascension will each in turn drink the cup of suffering that Christ Himself drank.

This, then, helps us to know how to live Lent properly. Lent is less about tinkering in self-improvement, so that perhaps after this life is over, there may be a lucky ticket to a vacation destination of our choice. No, Lent is praying, fasting and giving alms so that we are more open to the reality of heaven, so that if God wants to give us revelations of heaven, that we will not look away in fear, not hold on to what we can control, but allow ourselves to be captured by the beauty of heaven and the truth of the Resurrection so that we cannot think of anything else, but begin even now to pass over from death to life. It is not delaying the decision of whether to enter heaven until the last moment of our earthly lives, but to see that the Passover is right in front of us, and that we are capable of being transfigured even now by God's grace. Jesus touches us in the Holy Eucharist today, and tells us, do not be afraid to pass over with him, in him, and through him, into the transfigured reality of eternal life. For the Resurrection is not a vain hope, it is a certain reality that we are meant to experience even now in our earthly lives, as Peter, James and John experienced at the Transfiguration.

But Jesus came and touched them saying, Rise, and do not be afraid!

JMJ AMDG +m