"Lets get (messed up)!": (((Homily))) Second Sunday of Lent
by Father Brian J. Soliven on Sunday March 8, 2020
"LETS GET (MESSED) UP! LETS GET (MESSED) UP!", was the chant the crowd deliriously howled at the "Night in the Country" music festival in Yearington, Nevada. In perfect unison, nearly 15,000 concert-goers regurgitated this phrase over and over, but the word they preferred was a tad more expletive. The crude war cry, echoed for miles around that little sleepy desert town. In the midst of it all, Jordan stood silent. Unlike his friends and the strangers around who were swept up by the emotion of the masses, a wave of disgust came over him instead. "This is idolatry," he whispered to himself. "They're worshipping debauchery." There has to be more to life than this...
The Pastor's Prayer Journal
From a sermon of St. Leo the Great (pope from 440- 461) that he gave on this Sunday’s Gospel reading that you will hear at the Holy Mass:
The Lord reveals his glory in the presence of chosen witnesses. His body is like that of the rest of mankind, but he makes it shine with such splendour that his face becomes like the sun in glory, and his garments as white as snow. The great reason for this transfiguration was to remove the scandal of the cross from the hearts of his disciples, and to prevent the humiliation of his voluntary suffering from disturbing the faith of those who had witnessed the surpassing glory that lay concealed. With no less forethought he was also providing a firm foundation for the hope of holy Church. The whole body of Christ was to understand the kind of transformation that it would receive as his gift: the members of that body were to look forward to a share in that glory which first blazed out in Christ their head.
The Lord had himself spoken of this when he foretold the splendour of his coming: Then the just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Saint Paul the apostle bore witness to this same truth when he said: I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not to be compared to the future glory that is to be revealed in us. In another place he says: You are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. This marvel of the transfiguration contains another lesson for the apostles, to strengthen them and lead them into the fullness of knowledge. Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, appeared with the Lord in conversation with him. This was in order to fulfil exactly, through the presence of these five men, the text which says: Before two or three witnesses every word is ratified. What word could be more firmly established, more securely based, than the word which is proclaimed by the trumpets of both old and new testaments, sounding in harmony, and by the utterances of ancient prophecy and the teaching of the Gospel, in full agreement with each other?
In the preaching of the holy Gospel all should receive a strengthening of their faith. No one should be ashamed of the cross of Christ, through which the world has been redeemed. No one should fear to suffer for the sake of justice; no one should lose confidence in the reward that has been promised. The way to rest is through toil, the way to life is through death. Christ has taken on himself the whole weakness of our lowly human nature. If then we are steadfast in our faith in him and in our love for him, we win the victory that he has won, we receive what he has promised. When it comes to obeying the commandments or enduring adversity, the words uttered by the Father should always echo in our ears: This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.
