Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent Year B
Theme: THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD….” Jesus went up the mountain to pray”
By: Fr. Jaume GONZÁLEZ i Padrós
Homily for Sunday February 28 2021
Today we are contemplating the act «whereby the three apostles Peter, James and John appear enraptured over the beauty of our Redeemer» (Saint John Paul II): «And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them» (Mk 9:2-3).
As for us, a message has been revealed: «But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who had abolished death, and had brought life and immortality to light through the gospel» (2Tim 1:10), St. Paul assures Timothy, his disciple. It is what, then, the three favorite Apostles are looking at, totally amazed, in this episode announcing the second Sunday of Lent: The Transfiguration.
It is good that in our Lenten exercise we receive that brilliant sun and shining light in Jesus’ face and clothes. It is a marvelous icon of redeemed mankind, which no longer appears in the ugliness of sin, but in all the beauty divinity turns our flesh into. Peter’s well-being is the expression of what we feel when we let the divine grace fill us.
The Holy Spirit also transfigures the Apostles’ senses, and thanks to this they can witness the divine glory of the Man Jesus. Transfigured eyes to see what shines most; transfigured ears to hear the truest and most sublime voice: that of the Father who rejoices in his Son. Altogether, too impressive for us, rather used to grayish mediocrity. Only if we let Our Lord touch us with his Grace, our senses will be able to see and hear that which is most beautiful and most joyful, in God, and in those made holy by him, who raised from the dead.
«Christian spirituality -saint John Paul II wrote- has as a characteristic the disciple’s duty to gradually and fully shape himself with his Master», in such a way that -through an assiduousness we could call “friendly”- we get to the point of «breathing his senses». Let us put in the Virgin Mary’s hands the milestone of our true “trans-figuration” in her Son Jesus Christ.
Fr. Jaume GONZÁLEZ i Padrós
(Barcelona, Spain)