2nd Sunday of Lent

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To listen to today’s homily, please select the audio file below:

 

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This Sunday we read about the mystery of the Transfiguration from the gospel of Luke who says explicitly that Jesus and his disciples “went up onto the mountain to pray.” Luke sees prayer as the way into great mysteries. Lk 9,28-36

“While Jesus is praying” his face is changed in appearance, his clothes become dazzlingly white and Moses and Elijah talk with him. He also sees Moses and Elijah appearing in glory speaking of “his passage which he is about to fulfill in Jerusalem.”

Luke’s account anticipates  the later Emmaus story when the risen Jesus recalls to his disciples on the road what the prophets said of his death and resurrection, his passage into glory.

But it’s prayer that the evangelist wants us mostly to remember. Prayer gives us the gift to see things from God’s perspective rather than from our own. As Jesus and his disciples prayed on the mountain, human reason and experience bowed before a greater light and power. After falling “into a deep sleep” the disciples briefly experience God’s glory before they continue on their journey to Jerusalem.

As he guided people in prayer, St. Paul of the Cross told them to pray faithfully and regularly. Moments of transfiguration were waiting. The Holy Spirit was calling them to a high place to meet God.

“Prayer is not to be made according to our ideas, but directed by the

Holy Spirit. It’s best to begin your prayer on the mysteries of the holy Passion, for that

is the gateway. “I am the door, and no one comes to the Father except through

me.” But when the soul gets lost in the immensity of the Divinity and caught in

the vision of the Infinite Good in faith and fed by love, it should remain that way.

It would be a serious mistake to turn away to anything else.”

(Letter 764)

Lord Jesus,

lead me to that mountain,

that bright mountain

‘where God instructs us in his ways

that we may walk in his truth.’

Teach me to pray.

3 thoughts on “2nd Sunday of Lent”

  2. vhoagland's avatarvhoagland Post author

    The mountain pictured in the blog is the traditional mountain of the Transfiguration. It dominates that area in Galilee, so you can see why it might have been chosen. On the mountain is a beautiful shrine church. The only way you can get up the mountain is by taxi. The two times I was in the Holy Land I didn’t get up the mountain. First time, the taxis were on strike. The second time, it was so crowded we couldn’t have made the trip down to Jericho if we waited.
    So I never got up the Mountain of the Transfiguration.
    Maybe we’ll go again?
    Best to Susan,
    FV

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  3. Orlando's avatarOrlando

    Father Owen Lally, in his incredible love, would guide us up this Mountain every week, in our prayer group. Through prayer,song, and praise we would meet our glorified, shining Lord, even the hosts of Heaven, in that blessed Chapel. We had pitched our “tents” up there. We thought it would last forever, being in that cloud of Glory every week. But now we are orphaned, in a way. But in the most important Way we are not. Our Lord Jesus takes us down the mountain, always with us to face our own Jerusalem and our own Passions with Him. Father Owen will be praying for us.

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