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OMELIE / Omelie EN

08 mar 2020
8/03/2020 – 2nd Sunday of Lent - Year A 

8/03/2020 – 2nd Sunday of Lent - Year A 

Reading 1 GN 12,1-4 * Psalm 32 * Reading 2 2TM 1,8-10 * Gospel MT 17,1-9

 

The cross Is always there in Jesus' thoughts and heart, so much so that even in many icons showing Mary with the Child He is pictured while He is already looking at the angels carrying the tools of the passion: flogs and crowns with thorns, nails and cross. And also the story in today’s gospel, showing Him while climbing up the mountain with three disciples to pray, is a continuation of that contemplating. In fact, the fruit of His prayer will be the certainty of His resurrection from the dead. Matthew does not tell us about the details neither of His prayer nor of His talks with Moses, Elijah and with the disciples. We know however from the other evangelists that He was talking about the cross, about His death on the cross. He had never been able to ignore it or forget it.

Jesus has brought three disciples away from everyone in order to pray: He was able to find for Himself and for them the suitable time and place for an action that therefore need to be important for us too. Will I be able during this Lent to find a day to accompany Jesus to His place of prayer, away from my usual occupations, alone or with another disciple of His?

The prayer transfigured His face: is it not right that he who prays becomes more beautiful, more luminous? This event therefore does not surprise me: Jesus is with the Father thanks to perfect love, offering up Himself in a perfect way and so His face reflects all the divine light, coming from the Father’s love.

The disciples see close to Jesus God’s friends, men who for Him are always alive: it is not a dream, it is real, so much so that they talk to Him. What are they talking about? As Saint Luke says, they are talking about His “departure”, meaning His leaving the world to go to the Father. Getting down the mountain then Jesus picks the topic up again with the three disciples, who however cannot answer back, cannot understand, are shocked. They have been amazed by the splendor, by the two people they had never seen before, - though they had been always in their faith -, by the cloud, by the voice coming from above, but even more by Jesus’ conclusion. He is not talking about human glory, success, warm welcome coming from the leaders of the people; instead He is talking about resurrection from the dead. And about these words they are above all awestruck, if not completely, by those referring to death.

We are living through Lent, a time for preparation towards baptism or the renewal of our adherence to that God in whose name we have been baptised. The page of today’s Gospel pushes us to take concrete steps, first of all towards prayer, without which it is impossible to keep up with the journey of faithfulness to Jesus. Prayer will help us to keep listening to His voice and living obeying His word, as the voice coming from the cloud said. This obedience for us is without doubt a cross, it costs us, because we are narrow-minded and bound to the ropes of our selfishness, to the influence of the way of doing things of the world that is around us, to the temptations of the devil: living in a new way costs us, it makes us suffer.

The apostle Paul is advising us exactly to suffer fearlessly for the gospel: this is the way in which we can show our thankfulness to the Lord Jesus, who has saved and called us. He has saved us from the influence of the world and the devil, and He has called us to be children of God with Him! In this way we are experiencing the blessing, the one that was already promised to Abraham, invited by God to leave the securities in order to follow His guidance. Abraham’s blind obedience has reached its apex in Jesus, who is its blessing, not only for the people, descendance of his, but also for all the peoples, therefore for us too.

May the Lord give us, as fruit of today’s Eucharist, the possibility to renew our prayer and our obedience. The light of Jesus' face will shine on our face too and will reward us for the effort we make to follow Him.