Your Lenten Journey

Dr. Ralph Del Colle
Associate Professor of Theology

Web posted: March 3, 2005

It is comforting that yesterday’s Gospel text from St. Matthew for the Second Sunday of Lent presents the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain, where we read that “his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.”  As at Jesus’ baptism a voice is heard——“This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”  Despite the similarity of these words to those heard at Jesus’ baptism, there are two differences.  At his baptism the voice is from heaven; at the Transfiguration it comes from the cloud that appears on the mountain overshadowing Jesus and his disciples, along with Moses and Elijah who have come to converse with Jesus. Representing the Law and the Prophets, the presence of these two Old Testament figures points to the culmination of God’s saving acts to be accomplished in the unfolding events of Jesus’ life and mission.  Also, at the Transfiguration the command is added——“listen to him.”   Both of these are instructive for our Lenten journey.

The cloud signifying God’s presence and the transfiguration of Jesus’ body that precedes it are transient events.  Jesus will descend from the mountain and make his way to Jerusalem where he will be crucified.  Lent is about the necessary path of conversion to which God’s law and prophetic word calls us, preparing us to encounter Jesus in his passion, death and resurrection.   We can be assured that God is with us on our Lenten journey, not just appearing at its end as if we had to make ourselves worthy of the divine presence.  The glory of the Transfiguration, a foretaste of the resurrection to come, reminds us that the grace of transformation that enables our Lenten penitential practices and toward which we move resides in our communion with God’s Beloved; hence, the divine command to “listen to him.”  Personal transformation is no self-apotheosis (making ourselves God), some unveiling of our true untarnished inner person.  Rather it is a pilgrimage in holiness, being set apart for God, and is a difficult and often painful turning of one’s real self to God as we are loved by the Beloved amid his cross and ours.  In a world fragmented by sin, ours not excluded, repentance becomes a gift of truth, freedom and the beginning of spiritual maturity.  This Lent as we journey in the light of God’s presence and are confronted by the darkness, within and without, may we be blessed like the disciples on the mountain, Peter, James and John, to raise our eyes and see Jesus alone who beckons to us: “Rise and do not be afraid.”