OMELIE / Omelie EN

26/6/2016

12/03/2017 – 2st Sunday of Lent - Year A

12/03/2014 – 2nd Sunday of Lent - Year A

Reading 1, Genesis 12:1-4 * Psalms 32 * Reading 2, Second Timothy 1:8-10 * Gospel, Matthew 17:1-9

“Here and now” is not part of God’s plan, it is not how it works. Today St. Paul reminds us of this truth, when he says that “before the beginning of time” God has given us His Grace, but “it has been revealed only by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus”. Since the beginning of time, God has been waiting for this very moment, when Jesus came among us. Before that, we had promises. We have heard those addressed to Abraham, promises of many blessings, of a blessing reaching “all clans on earth”. Promises sustain hope, foster trust, test obedience and faithfulness. Abraham had hope and built his entire life on his trust in God, to Whom he remained faithful through obedience, an obedience that now seems heroic to us. His faith sustained that of entire generations to come, for thousands of years, and it helped them to carry on with that same obedience or to start over when they lost it. The faith that has driven Abraham to leave his own country it is still an encouragement to us and a certainty.

Jesus kept living that same faith, and God the Father has given evidence to appreciate it. Jesus’ faith fulfilled those ancient promises, it is their accomplishment. Today we can follow Him while He climbs “up a high mountain”, together with three of His first disciples. They are those who are going to be with Him in some other particular moments, in which a new kind of faith is required. Jesus has chosen them to accompany Him in climbing up the mountain: they are going to be eyewitnesses of what is happening. “Climbing up the mountain” reminds us not only of Abraham’s journey in leaving his father’s house, but also that one – three days long – ending in him laying Isaac down on the pyre on top of the stone altar: he was going to sacrifice him to God. Jesus is climbing up the mountain with an even more truthful and holy intent: He intends to offer Himself to God, He is offering His own life to Him. In fact, this is what His prayer is about, and this is the topic of His conversation with Moses and Elijah, as we can read in St. Luke’s Gospel. Jesus is bright, as if He Himself was the burning flame, the fire that is consuming Him in His Father’s honor. In that moment a great mystery is operating, the revelation of God’s secrets. All the prophecies of Moses’ and Elijah’s lives are fulfilled. Not only Jesus is a prophet, but He Himself is the Father’s Word, that vigorously reveals His true nature, coming out of the cloud that envelops the three disciples: “This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.”. That mysterious voice reveals itself to us: it is the Father Himself, our God, who is speaking. He calls Jesus “my Son”, but also “the Beloved”. These are the exact same words with which Abraham addresses himself to the son that he has received from God as a godsend. The last word that the Three heard is an invitation, an order to pay always attention to every word that comes out of Jesus’ heart and mouth. It is a great gift the fact that this invitation has reached us as well. I can hear Jesus’ voice too, I want to listen to Him too, because now I know that, if I follow His word and I bend to God’s will, I will keep walking towards life. Moses and Elijah are now gone: I cannot judge Jesus on the basis of Moses’ Law or Elijah’s prophecies, because now God shows Himself only through Him. Thanks to Him, I can understand the true meaning of Moses’ and Elijah’s words and lives, a meaning in preparation of our hearts to decisively and freely obey only to God. While the three of them get down the mountain with Jesus, they can only hear His voice, and He is talking to them only to help them to keep silent. They will guard the revelation they witnessed like a secret: their hearts and their minds have to mature and to strengthen to receive the new secret, the new revelation coming after our Lord’s death. They cannot understand all their Master’s words. In the silence, God’s Himself is preparing them to receive the news of the Resurrection and to rejoice at it, a Resurrection that now is only something incomprehensible.

During this Lent, let’s live the same silence the three disciples lived. Maybe somebody could struggle to find the time or the right place to relive that silence, that is something precious because makes us grow and become strong in that faith that bears fruit of charity and peace. In this, St. Paul helps us with the invitation he addresses to his faithful disciple Timothy: “share in my hardships for the sake of the gospel, relying on the power of God”. Suffering is not something bad, something to be avoided. Suffering is the opportunity to offer our own life too, to be able to take part in Jesus’ life, Jesus who saved us by offering himself as a sacrifice on the cross. In this way, we will be confirmed in our faith, trust and obedience to God the Father. “Share in my hardships for the sake of the gospel”: the Apostle suffers too, because he wants to spread the good news of the love with which God showed up in the world, the good news that we are loved by our Father and that the Father’s Love is Jesus. The bright light of our Lord’s face and clothes gives us strength and joy, courage to be able to receive all the help we need to be true disciples: that same silence with which we can seriously understand Jesus’s presence at our side.