20150301 THE TRANSFIGURED LIFE AS SONSHIP IN CHRIST IN
SELF-EMPTYING LOVE
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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Genesis
22:1-2,9-13,15-18 ©
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God put Abraham to
the test. ‘Abraham, Abraham’ he called. ‘Here I am’ he replied. ‘Take your
son,’ God said ‘your only child Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of
Moriah. There you shall offer him as a burnt offering, on a mountain I will
point out to you.’
When they
arrived at the place God had pointed out to him, Abraham built an altar there,
and arranged the wood. Then he bound his son Isaac and put him on the altar on
top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and seized the knife to kill
his son.
But the
angel of the Lord called to him from heaven. ‘Abraham, Abraham’ he said. ‘I am
here’ he replied. ‘Do not raise your hand against the boy’ the angel said. ‘Do
not harm him, for now I know you fear God. You have not refused me your son,
your only son.’ Then looking up, Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in a
bush. Abraham took the ram and offered it as a burnt-offering in place of his
son.
The angel
of the Lord called Abraham a second time from heaven. ‘I swear by my own
self – it is the Lord who speaks – because you have done this,
because you have not refused me your son, your only son, I will shower
blessings on you, I will make your descendants as many as the stars of heaven
and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants shall gain possession
of the gates of their enemies. All the nations of the earth shall bless
themselves by your descendants, as a reward for your obedience.’
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Psalm
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Psalm
115:10,15-19 ©
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I will walk in the
presence of the Lord in the land of the living.
I trusted, even when
I said:
‘I am
sorely afflicted,’
O precious in the
eyes of the Lord
is the
death of his faithful.
I will walk in the
presence of the Lord in the land of the living.
Your servant, Lord,
your servant am I;
you have
loosened my bonds.
A thanksgiving
sacrifice I make;
I will
call on the Lord’s name.
I will walk in the
presence of the Lord in the land of the living.
My vows to the Lord I
will fulfil
before
all his people,
in the courts of the
house of the Lord,
in your
midst, O Jerusalem.
I will walk in the
presence of the Lord in the land of the living.
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Second reading
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Romans 8:31-34 ©
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With God on our side
who can be against us? Since God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to
benefit us all, we may be certain, after such a gift, that he will not refuse
anything he can give. Could anyone accuse those that God has chosen? When God
acquits, could anyone condemn? Could Christ Jesus? No! He not only died for
us – he rose from the dead, and there at God’s right hand he stands and
pleads for us.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Mt17:5
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Glory and praise to
you, O Christ!
From the bright cloud
the Father’s voice was heard:
‘This is my Son, the
Beloved. Listen to him.’
Glory and praise to
you, O Christ!
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Gospel
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Mark 9:2-10 ©
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Jesus took with him
Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain where they could be
alone by themselves. There in their presence he was transfigured: his clothes
became dazzlingly white, whiter than any earthly bleacher could make them.
Elijah appeared to them with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. Then Peter
spoke to Jesus: ‘Rabbi,’ he said ‘it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us
make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ He did not
know what to say; they were so frightened. And a cloud came, covering them in
shadow; and there came a voice from the cloud, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved.
Listen to him.’ Then suddenly, when they looked round, they saw no one with
them any more but only Jesus.
As
they came down from the mountain he warned them to tell no one what they had
seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They observed the
warning faithfully, though among themselves they discussed what ‘rising from
the dead’ could mean.
THE
TRANSFIGURED LIFE AS SONSHIP IN CHRIST IN SELF-EMPTYING LOVE
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: GN 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18; ROM 8:31-34; MK 9:2-10
As we
enter the 2nd Sunday of Lent, it is important that we are clear
about the purpose of our whole Lenten preparation so that we can commit
ourselves totally to the Lenten program. Unless we know our goal, we
would not be able to persevere relentlessly in attaining it. What
then is the final goal of Lent? The gospel today gives us a preview of
the outcome of what we shall be if we follow the life of Jesus closely.
Like Jesus, we will share in His glory, the glory which He had before the
beginning of the world and truly realized in time at the resurrection.
This glory is now made known to us through the apostles when His glory was
manifested at the Transfiguration at Mount Tabor.
But what is this glory? Certainly, it is first and foremost
the glory of His resurrection. But what does the resurrected life
consist of? Surely, it is more than just the fact that because of Jesus’
resurrection, we too will also be raised again in body and soul on the last
day. Rather, the truly resurrected life is the glory of a transfigured,
that is, a new and glorious life lived in the sonship of Jesus. Hence, we
can say that the purpose of Lent is to prepare us to share in the
fullness of the sonship of Jesus. This fullness of divine sonship is
realized by Jesus in His obedience to the Father’s will even unto death, which
is confirmed by the Father raising Him from the dead in the Spirit.
Thus, it is necessary therefore that we reflect today as to how we can truly
share in the glory of Jesus’ sonship.
Right from the outset, we
must deepen our understanding of the import of the word, “the glory of Jesus.”
The three apostles who saw Jesus prostrated in agony in Gethsemane were given
this glimpse of who He really was, to strengthen them for what lay ahead, and
also to help them to understand what is revealed in the Passion.
Hence, it is clear that if
we were to share in His glory, then we must first and foremost share in the
glory of the crucifixion at Mount Calvary. In other words, we must go
through the passion with Jesus. Unfortunately, many of us are looking for
quick and instant glory. There are some people today who refuse to work
or to study but want to earn big bucks through easy ways, like cheating,
stealing and swindling. This attempt to take short cuts is true especially in
relationships. Today, people want romance but not love. They just
want to feel nice but they do not believe in the selfless sacrifice of
love. Yes, we are like Peter who wanted to stay on Mount Tabor
forever and be bathed in the glory of the Transfiguration. He was not
willing to come down from the mountain of glory to the plain and drudgery of
life. But for Jesus, the message is clear: there are no short cuts to
love or life; no short cuts to the glory of the resurrection and sharing in the
sonship of God. The passion and death is the only way to the resurrection
and to life.
What then is the kind of
passion that we must all go through? Firstly, we have to go through the passion of
obedience. If we were to enjoy the glory of the sonship of Jesus,
then obedience is the price that has to be paid. For what designates
someone as a son? To be a true son is to learn obedience. Hence, in
the utter obedience of Jesus to the Father’s will, Jesus manifested His true
sonship of the Father since He shares in the same will and desire of the
Father. Similarly, Abraham was a true son of God because he was obedient
to the Father’s will. When Abraham was put to the ultimate test of
obedience, he showed himself to have absolute trust in his God. It was
certainly not easy for Abraham to sacrifice his only Son, Isaac. Even if
the scriptures did not portray this episode in the life of Abraham vividly, we
can be sure that it must have been totally heart-breaking. We all know
how painful it is already to leave our loved ones behind when we have to go
away for some time. Obedience to God’s will, then, is the first quality
of sonship.
For us today, this call to
obedience will be manifested in different ways. It could be a call to
obedience to our calling in life; a call to fidelity be it to our marriage or
vocation; a call to integrity and responsibility in our work. Most of
all, obedience means that we would not do anything that goes against our very
being; our very status and calling in life. Obedience to the Father
in the final analysis is obedience to the truths and values of the gospel
message. It is when we are faithful to our Christian beliefs and to
the Word of God that we can truly call ourselves sons and daughters of God,
since our lives reflect the life of God himself.
Secondly, the passion
that we need to go through is that of self-emptying love. Self-emptying love is the key
to life. We see this most clearly in the Father’s love, as Paul tells us
in the first reading. So great is His love for us that He gave up His
only son! It is a love that knows no limits. We must not think that
the Heavenly Father is so happy to sacrifice His Son and to allow Him to die
for our sake. On the contrary, like the Father, many of us parents
would rather suffer and die in the stead of our loved ones. To see our
loved ones suffer is almost unbearable. That is why, for the Father to
have Jesus, His only Son, go through the agonizing passion, was really an
expression of the self-emptying love of the Father, a love that does not hold
back anything from us.
It means therefore that if
we want to share in the sonship of Jesus, which is a reflection of the
self-emptying love of the Father, we, too, must share in the self-emptying
love of the Father, Jesus and Abraham. This requires nothing less
than to die to self and to all forms of attachment. Yes, we are called
not only to love others but also to die to ourselves and our ego. In
concrete terms, it means that we must put others before self. Yes, unless,
we put others before ourselves and be sensitive to their needs, we will not be
able to call ourselves the true sons and daughters of God since we do not share
in His self-emptying love.
Of course, living this
life of obedience and self-emptying love is difficult. Again and again we fail to be
true to our sonship. At times, we feel like giving up hope on ourselves
and think that we will never be able to live that life of selfless love,
compassion and service. Knowing that we can get discouraged, the Church,
through the scripture readings of today, assures us that we can trust in God’s
compassion and mercy. We see how the apostles, although the forerunners
of our faith, were deeply privileged to see the glory of Jesus, yet these same
apostles failed Jesus by not watching with Him in Gethsemane and by fleeing at
this arrest. We too fail quite often to be true witnesses to our sonship
in Jesus because of our lack of courage and wisdom and understanding.
This was the case for Peter too, who failed Jesus later on because he could not
grasp the mystery of the transfiguration and wanted to remain on the mountain.
The compassion and
understanding of God of our human weakness is also highlighted when God stopped
Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac when He did not spare His own Son. St Paul said, “Since
God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all, we may be
certain, after such a gift, that he will not refuse anything he can give.
Could anyone accuse those that God has chosen? When God acquits, could
anyone condemn?” Indeed, Paul assures us that in our struggles,
challenges and weaknesses, we can be sure that Christ Jesus will not condemn
us. He knows what it is to be human.
Consequently, today if we
were to be able to join Jesus in the passion of living a life of obedience and
self-emptying love, then we need to pray for an increase of faith so that we
can truly live out the sonship of Jesus. This faith is ours, if only
we listen to Him, just as Jesus listened to God. That is why today, the
gospel invites us to listen to Jesus for He is the fulfillment of that law and
prophets.
So, as we journey through
this season of Lent, let us keep before us our objective. We are
called to share in the glory of Jesus’ divine sonship; the divine life of God,
the resurrected life. This is the ultimate purpose of our Lenten
preparation. The journey might be difficult but we must be confident and
not give up too easily even when we fail. What is important is that if we
journey with the Lord with faith and in union with Him, we will one day also be
rewarded like Abraham. Like him, we will also share in the many blessings
of God which come about through our sharing in the sonship of Christ.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
