_{Holy Spirit Catholic Church
Homilies}

 SECOND SUNDAY  OF LENT ( C ) 2010

Children can get us into trouble.  It was the custom of a parish I was assigned to in Boston as a Deacon that during the Sunday Children's Mass to have the children come up the center aisle and sit around the priest for his homily to them.  After the homily Fr. Roger would kneel down on one knee and bless the children one by one.  The last child to come up this particular Sunday was the four-year-old son of the very well-known football coach at one of the nearby colleges.

The priest had the custom of leaving his microphone on so that the congregation could hear the blessings.  As the last boy approached, he asked, "Fr. Roger, do you know where my Daddy is today?"  "No, Tommy, where is he?"  "He's on the golf course, and boy, is my mother mad!"  The congregation howled in laughter.

Our Lenten time is meant to help us draw closer to understanding and appreciating the passion and death of Jesus Christ.  Lent helps us remember what it took . . . Christ's suffering and death . . . to free us from our sins.  This is why Lent is a penitential season and we practice acts of self-sacrifice.  We want to make Christ's suffering effective for us by somehow entering into it.  We ponder our sinfulness during Lent so that we will come to realize how great a gift Christ's death is.

Lent is a time when we struggle to conform ourselves to the person and life of Jesus Christ.  To practice self-sacrifice (giving something up for Lent) is a way of freeing ourselves of something that stands between us and Jesus.  Biblically based self-sacrifice can be something that can be given away in order to benefit the poor. 

Money that would normally be spent on coffee, or cigarettes, for example, could be given as alms to your favorite charity or your church.  Our sacrifice should always benefit another.  We know that giving up coffee or smoking would be a struggle and a painful self-sacrifice because addiction to caffeine or nicotine is so powerful.  This example teaches us that what we give up for Lent should really be a sacrifice, something that is not easy, something that is a challenge.  This struggle helps us appreciate the depth of Jesus' sacrifice, His willingness to accept torture and death.

Just prior to our Gospel passage today Peter acknowledged that Jesus is the Christ.  Jesus then told the disciples what this meant, that He would suffer greatly and be killed.  Peter did not like this at all and began to talk Jesus out of it, to which Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan."  This was a temptation to Jesus.

Jesus' announcement must have caused an ongoing discussion between Himself and the disciples.  Jesus had told them that they must pick up their own cross, but they evidently weren't too pleased to hear this either.  It is in this context that the Transfiguration occurs.  Jesus invites the inner circle . . . Peter, John, and James . . . to climb a mountain and to pray with Him.  When they arrived, Jesus prayed but the companions slept.  Awakened, they saw the vision of Jesus standing with Moses and Elijah.  Peter once again begins to suggest to Jesus what should be done.  Peter calls to mind the Jewish Festival of Booths.  It is a joyful festival, and this is the only way he knows how to respond to what he sees. 

Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets, the whole of the Scriptures.  They are the ones to whom practically the whole history of Israel had listened.  Peter was like Israel.  He listened to the Law and the Prophets, but he kept wanting to control Jesus (Sounds like us doesn't it?).  Then the voice was heard.  Being enveloped in the cloud, a symbol of the presence of God, Peter and his companions hear what they must hear. 

"This is my chosen Son.  Listen to Him!"  No more would Peter tell Jesus what to do.  Peter, humbled, realized that he had to listen and follow Jesus to Jerusalem.  He didn't like it, but following Jesus was what he must attempt to do.

We, too, are called to listen to Jesus.  But all too often we are like Peter.  We don't listen.  We try to tell God what to do.  We put ourselves in charge of our relationship with God rather than letting God be in charge of the relationship.  If we are going to conform ourselves to Jesus, we have to listen to Him.  This means finding a way to get ourselves out of the way. 

We make choices everyday.  A little boy let the cat out of the bag in revealing that his father was not at church with his family because he chose to play golf instead.  The congregation laughed because it knew well the discussion that must have occurred between husband and wife. 

If we are going to choose ourselves over Jesus Christ, we will be the ones Paul described as "enemies of the cross of Christ."  We cannot be these enemies!  We must put a few things aside, especially during Lent, so that we can listen a little better!