Second Sunday of Lent (March 4^th 2012)   

Mark 9:2-10

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 What motivates us to give things up during Lent? Do we do it for superficial reasons?

2. In what way can an appreciation for the beauty of Christ help us to deny ourselves?

3. Am I inclined to think that the Christian life is one of fulfilling certain rules or obligations? Could it be that Christianity, instead, is founded on beauty and joy?

4. In the Gospel, the disciples see the beauty of Christ, then they are told to listen to Him. Why is listening to the word of God so important?

5. In what way can the beauty of the Transfiguration motivate us to walk in obedience towards the even greater beauty of the Resurrection?

The Transfiguration has an important role in motivating us during Lent

The Gospel of the second Sunday of Lent is always the story of the Transfiguration. Jesus makes known to his disciples the glory that will be his after the Resurrection. They see him in conversation with Moses and Elijah, who represent the Old Testament. This event has an important role in our journey towards Easter. Lent is a time of austerity and purification. If we take it seriously and make it a time of fasting, prayer and almsgiving, then Lent becomes a battle against one's own deficiencies. We can only enter this battle if we have a clear and worthwhile goal. Jesus' foreshadowing to his disciples of his passion, death and resurrection demonstrates that we all have need of motivation in our journey towards Easter. It is a waste of time forcing ourselves to do a series of penitential acts, if we do not have sincere motivation of some kind. In everyday life, people continually renounce things in order to achieve a goal. For a moment of pleasure, in order to advance their careers, and for a multitude of superficial reasons, people are willing to make great sacrifices.

The correct motivation for Lenten penance is to increase our appreciation for the beauty of Christ

For us, it is very important that we have the correct motivation for following Jesus. And this motivation is put into words by Peter. Let us recount the story. Jesus takes the three disciples apart and gives them an intimate experience of that which lies ahead in the future. His face changes and his clothes become whiter than anything on earth. It is clearly an experience of the supernatural, of something that defies the human capacity for understanding. Moses was the giver of the Law and Elijah was the greatest of the prophets. Upon beholding this wonderful scene, Peter speaks those words that are at the heart of Christian motivation; "Rabbi, it is wonderful (or beautiful) for us to be here!" The reason why we are willing to struggle with our own flesh, with the world and with evil, is because we have discovered the beauty of Christ. Christianity is founded on the encounter with the most beautiful of the sons of men. The reason why people are willing to make sacrifices and confront all the difficulties of the mission God has given them is because they has been illuminated to the depths of their being by Christ. It is simply wonderful to be with Christ and that is all the motivation that one needs.

        It is essential that we (and the younger generation in particular) be grounded on the revelation of the beauty of the face of Christ, the beauty of the one who became unsightly out of love of us. His beauty is not the beauty of a beautician's parlour, nor of the cover of a glossy magazine, but a different type of beauty altogether. It is the beauty of one who knows how to love and who is the wisdom of God.

Christianity is not founded on obligation but on beauty and joy

When Peter speaks, he is using the language of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (or Tents), which may have been celebrated at that time of year. He says: "Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah". The Feast of Tabernacles was a very joyful festival in which tents were erected and the people recalled the time spent by Israel in the desert. They listed to the Word of God and celebrated the saving action of God. This joy is concentrated in the contemplation of Peter on the scene of the Transfiguration, leading him to say, "It is wonderful to be here!" This significance of this statement cannot be over-estimated. Christianity is not founded on obligation, nor is it a philosophical or ideological doctrine. Christianity is founded on beauty and its goal is the joy of humanity. We are called to be in a beautiful place and to be with someone whose company is beautiful. This beauty must be proclaimed and defended robustly.

Seeing is not enough. We must also listen. The Christian life must move from the contemplation of beauty to the acceptance of God's word in our hearts

After the period of contemplation, Peter sees a cloud and hears the voice of God: "This is my Son, the beloved. Listen to him". In other words, Jesus is the one who is loved above all, and if we wish to share in his beauty then we must listen to him. It is interesting that the Gospel account switches from that which is seen to that which is heard. First the disciples see the beauty of God, then they listen to the voice of God. That which we see with our eyes is aesthetic, whilst the word of God is something that has to be welcomed into our hearts. That which is purely visual remains external to us. It can motivate us and make us wish to possess it, but the word is something that has the ability to enter into us. The word "obedience" derives from the Latin "to listen", and it means to listen truly, or to carry out what has been said. The beauty of Christ is something that must be listened to in this sense. It is not simply something aesthetic but involves the reception of a word that enters into my heart and transforms itself into practice. In fact Jesus says: "Everything that you have seen here will come to pass".

May the beauty of the Transfiguration motivate us to walk in obedience towards the even greater beauty of the Resurrection

They come down from the mountain and he tells them not to recount what has happened until he is risen from the dead. In the Lenten season, it is essential that we continue to relate this event to the journey towards Easter. The disciples ask themselves what "rising from the dead" could mean. That which we experience in a given moment is always small compared to what God is actually doing in that moment, and to what he will accomplish in the future. The beauty that Peter has contemplated is a taste of something even greater: the experience of the resurrection. As we journey in Lent, let us contemplate the beauty of the Transfiguration. May it motivate us to accept God's word and walk in obedience towards the even greater beauty that God is preparing for us: namely, the resurrection, the fully-illuminated life that awaits us in heaven.

In summary:

1. The Transfiguration reveals the beauty of Christ. It is the beauty of Christ that is the goal of the Christian life. Our journey in life is a journey towards a place that is beautiful and where we can be in the company of the One that is beautiful.

2. In Lent we make sacrifices, not in order to lose weight, or simply to give up bad habits that damage our health, but in order to confront our own poverty and to appreciate the beauty of Christ.

3. The beauty of Christ is not the beauty of a glossy magazine cover, but the beauty of one who was disfigured out of love for us.

4. Christianity is not founded on obligation, nor on a philosophical or ideological doctrine. It is directed towards attaining the joy of being in the presence of the beauty of God.

5. God the Father speaks from the clouds and asks the disciples to listen to Jesus. In order to attain the joy of the beauty of Christ, we must listen to the word of the Lord and allow it to enter our hearts and transform our lives.

6. The beauty of the Transfiguration motivates us to walk in obedience towards the even greater beauty of the Resurrection.