OMELIE / Omelie EN

13 mar 2022

13/03/2022 – 2nd Sunday of Lent - year C

13/03/2022 – 2^nd Sunday of Lent - year C

Reading 1 GEN 15, 5-12. 17-18 Psalm 26 Reading 2 PHIL 3, 17 - 4,1 Gospel LK 9, 28-36

Today’s liturgy compares Abraham’s experience to that of Jesus' three disciples’ on the mountain. Abraham is experiencing to be in God’s presence, whom he receives the promise of a very long lasting legacy from, and establishes with Him a covenant through the sacrifice of some animals.

The three disciples too, during Jesus' prayer, live through the experience of God’s presence: they do not receive any divine promise, but the certainty that in Jesus Himself, their Master, is fulfilled the whole plan of love and salvation the Father had for humanity. And this plan will come to fruition through the sacrifice of the Lord Himself, who is giving His life up. This is the topic of Jesus' discussion with Moses and Elijah.

Jesus has climbed the mountain, as Moses had climbed the Sinai and Elijah the Horeb. Both of them had suffered for the betrayal of the people, and the rebellion of many, who they loved. For Jesus, they are the prophets of what will happen to Him in a more violent way. On the mountain they had met the power of God’s love, wise power rich in tenderness. Jesus too had climbed the mountain to pray. His prayer is truthful, a true immersion in the Father’s love and will, and therefore His face, or better, even His clothes, become shining, bringing truth, joy and splendor.

They who enters God’s will becomes one thing with Him. Only the Son can welcome fully the Father’s will with the same love: so He becomes its full fulfilment.

The voice coming from the cloud and reaching the three sleepy disciples confirms this understanding. Jesus is declared by God His Son, and therefore king of all peoples, as the psalm makes us sing. This royal identity is the typical of the Messiah, who is bringing into the world tangibly and visibly the Father’s divinity. He is also the “beloved”, as Abraham’s son, who had climbed the mountain with his father carrying the sticks for his own sacrifice. Abraham’s son has been exchanged with the ram, because he was only a symbol for the Son of God; the latter instead cannot be exchanged with anything or anyone: He offers Himself to give His own body and blood, the only sacrifice which can finally fulfill the salvation with which God wants to love His creatures.

The fact that Jesus has brought with Him three disciples is making us aware that He wants to make us part both of His prayer and His glory, but also of His offer and His cross. The fact that He wanted only three of them with Him let us understand that in the Church Jesus Himself has devised different roles and services. It is the whole Church which is enjoying the Father’s love and takes part into Jesus' offering, and in the Church each one according to their calling. Everyone in the Church is letting transpire from their person the splendor of that light which has made Jesus' clothes and face unforgettable for the three disciples.

This is why the apostle Paul has given himself and the behaviour of the other Christians as an example, when he wrote to the faithful: “Join with others in being imitators of me, brothers and sisters, and observe those who thus conduct themselves according to the model you have in us”. If only we all could say the same! We should be able to say the same.

We should live with Jesus' prayer always in our heart: then His light too would shine. Living with Jesus' prayer in the heart means keeping constantly alive the desire to offer ourselves to the Father in order for Him to welcome us as sacrifice.

When we live in prayer Jesus' light shines on our face and makes it amiable to the brothers. Prayer is for us the mountain which we meet God on: we offer ourselves and He works on us, transforming us, making us a gift for the world, which has constantly the need to know and enjoy His presence. He expects that we listen to Jesus, His beloved Son: Jesus' words are reaching us when our heart is immersed in prayer, in the desire to belong to the Father.