Homily for March 8, 2009 Second Sunday of Lent
I don't know quite how to fit it in, but before I talk about the Gospel, I want to talk about the first reading. [The first reading was the binding of Isaac, the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac.]
How many of you found that first reading disturbing? [Many] Well, there was a time when people thought that's what God wanted. There was a time when offering your son or daughter as a sacrifice to God was quite common, and in the growth of relationship with God, they came to see that this is not what God wants. I would just like to see this story as part of that growth of realizing what God really wants.
Now to the Gospel. [The story of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain.] I want you to pretend that you don't know the end of the story. Pretend that you haven't heard the whole Gospel, and that you're reading it for the first time, and you don't know where it's going to go. Forget about Peter, James and John. They're just characters in this story that you're reading, and Jesus is a character in the story that you're reading. And Moses and Elijah are very important characters that you've heard about from other stories that you've read.
Now, you're reading along in the story. It begins with: “The Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God. “ And then Jesus is baptized, and the heavens open, and a voice, and the Spirit comes on him, and the voice says, "You are my beloved Son, and I am well pleased."
And then he's in the desert in the wilderness, and he comes back and he works miracles, and he teaches. He multiplies the bread, he drives out demons, he cures people who are paralyzed, he gives sight to the blind. And he asks the disciples, "Well, who do people say that I am?" They give the opinions of other people and Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?”
Peter says, "You're the Messiah." And then he begins to teach them that the Messiah is going to be put to death and rise again.
Now, as I imagine myself reading along, when I get to that point I want to say, "Wait a minute, “Mr. Mark.” What kind of Gospel is this you're writing? You can't have a Messiah that dies. What kind of story is this? The hero dies? He gets rejected? What's this all about? Where are you going with this story?"
So maybe Mark at this point in the story, to put your mind at ease, says, "Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain, and he was transfigured before them." Behold, there he is in glory, with Moses and Elijah. The voice from heaven says [again], "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Pay attention about the cross.
In the Gospel glory and shame, exaltation and humiliation, resurrection and death, suffering and the glory of God are all held together in a strange sort of tension. You can't have one without the other.
I find it very easy to believe Jesus is the Son of God on the mountaintop.
By the way, I was on that mountain in the early 90s. It's not a very big mountain. It's only about 1800 feet tall, but it comes right up out of the plain, so it looks very big. It was a late January afternoon toward sunset. Everything was bathed in beautiful golden sunlight, and everything below looked beautiful. I could easily imagine the scene in the Gospel.
Then the Arab taxicab driver drove us down the mountain with hairpin curves, no guardrails, and dangerously close to the edge, and every wonderful, holy thought I had was scared out of me. That's what life is like, isn't it? Mountains and valleys, glory and exaltation, and I need both. Our religion is all about the glory and the dignity we have as sons and daughters of God.
You know, when I remember that, and when I am in touch with that, there's a little mantra that goes through my mind: Who am I? I'm a child of God. What do I have? Everything. What do I need? Nothing.
When I forget that I am a child of God, the mantra goes like this: Who am I? I'm a child of the world. What do I have? Nothing. What do I need? Everything. It's like there's this big hole inside, and I keep trying to fill it up with all sorts of things that don't do the job. That is the meaning of sin in its deepest sense.
So what does that say to us today? Well, as I was thinking, we are living in hard times. We're surrounded by hardship and misery. I was talking to our St. Vincent de Paul people the other day -- and by the way the number of home visits and the number of people willing to do that is going up. What is it like doing home visits -- putting them on the spot.
Melba: Well, since Shirley went with me this week, I'm going to ask her help sharing in this, too. It's gosh, it's a real privilege, to start with. This week when we went out we are getting more calls for home visits. There are more people in need. There are more people that weren't in need before, now that are, people who've lost jobs that have been selfsufficient up until now.
But, this week when we went out we saw a variety of that kind of thing, and the thing that I think and Shirley mentioned this the thing that I think that really impressed and this happens over and over and over again is we go to these people who have nothing, and some of these people really do have nothing. I mean, you walk into these houses that have no heat, sometimes the water's been cut off or is about to be cut off, they don't have beds, they don't use stoves and refrigerators, things that we take for granted. And they are grateful for anything we give them. And if we don't have stickers for a stove, they are grateful for anything else that we can possibly give them.
You're talking about I can't remember the language you used but "a child of God." I see this in these people all the time. And it's a really humbling experience because I'm not usually there. It also makes me very grateful, grateful for what I have, but also grateful that I have the opportunity to actually meet these kinds of people. I don't know, Shirley, how do you feel?
Shirley: Well, I was struck by several different things. I remember this one home we went to that was on the second floor, and they had no furniture except for one bed. And this young man well, he's in his thirties, he's pretty young to me, or forties, I don't know he was saying that his son was in a, his 15 yearold son was in a group home and that he was going to be released. So he was trying to set up a place for them to live. And, you know, we asked what he wanted, "Well, do you want a couch?"
"Well, that would be fine, yeah, if you can get that."
"And an end table and a lamp? How about a chair?"
"Well, no, I think we can get along without that. Somebody else might need that."
And then we talked about dishes, and he said, well, he doesn't have any dishes except some mugs. So we told him that, because there were just two people there, that we would be able to give him two plates and two bowls and two sets of utensils.
And he said, "Oh, that would be wonderful. I understand that everybody has need, and that's all that we need and we are grateful for that, we don't want to take any more than we need." And he also told us that he had just lost his job. He worked for the Salvation Army in their store and it was just a part time job, and that he, that people weren't coming to the Salvation Army to buy anything. So it was, what struck me is that they had the selflessness, I guess, the wanting of not to take more than they really needed and the concern at the same time for other people's needs.
It's a very humbling experience, and I could tell you the same story about three or four of the other families that we visited. Thank you.
Fr. Larry: Contrast that with people who want more and more, even though they know it's being taken away from other people who need.
Back and forth, overwhelming need around us, and yet, if we could see through the physical surroundings to the point where God is creating and giving life and calling people to life, we would be overwhelmed by the beauty of what we see. And this is what happened on the mountain. Yes, there is this man who is going to fail. He's going to be rejected. He's going to be put to death. But who is he, really? He is God's beloved Son, and God is saying, "listen to him."
Well, look around you. If you could see each individual here at that point where God is creating, breathing life into each individual and loving him or her as a beloved son or daughter, what would you see? Well, I don't know about you. Sometimes I get a glimpse of the mountain, and then I try to hold onto it like Peter did let's build three tents and stay here and poof, it's gone, but then the test is can I believe that what I saw was real and continue to live for it?
How many of you found that first reading disturbing? [Many] Well, there was a time when people thought that's what God wanted. There was a time when offering your son or daughter as a sacrifice to God was quite common, and in the growth of relationship with God, they came to see that this is not what God wants. I would just like to see this story as part of that growth of realizing what God really wants.
Now to the Gospel. [The story of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain.] I want you to pretend that you don't know the end of the story. Pretend that you haven't heard the whole Gospel, and that you're reading it for the first time, and you don't know where it's going to go. Forget about Peter, James and John. They're just characters in this story that you're reading, and Jesus is a character in the story that you're reading. And Moses and Elijah are very important characters that you've heard about from other stories that you've read.
Now, you're reading along in the story. It begins with: “The Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God. “ And then Jesus is baptized, and the heavens open, and a voice, and the Spirit comes on him, and the voice says, "You are my beloved Son, and I am well pleased."
And then he's in the desert in the wilderness, and he comes back and he works miracles, and he teaches. He multiplies the bread, he drives out demons, he cures people who are paralyzed, he gives sight to the blind. And he asks the disciples, "Well, who do people say that I am?" They give the opinions of other people and Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?”
Peter says, "You're the Messiah." And then he begins to teach them that the Messiah is going to be put to death and rise again.
Now, as I imagine myself reading along, when I get to that point I want to say, "Wait a minute, “Mr. Mark.” What kind of Gospel is this you're writing? You can't have a Messiah that dies. What kind of story is this? The hero dies? He gets rejected? What's this all about? Where are you going with this story?"
So maybe Mark at this point in the story, to put your mind at ease, says, "Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain, and he was transfigured before them." Behold, there he is in glory, with Moses and Elijah. The voice from heaven says [again], "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Pay attention about the cross.
In the Gospel glory and shame, exaltation and humiliation, resurrection and death, suffering and the glory of God are all held together in a strange sort of tension. You can't have one without the other.
I find it very easy to believe Jesus is the Son of God on the mountaintop.
By the way, I was on that mountain in the early 90s. It's not a very big mountain. It's only about 1800 feet tall, but it comes right up out of the plain, so it looks very big. It was a late January afternoon toward sunset. Everything was bathed in beautiful golden sunlight, and everything below looked beautiful. I could easily imagine the scene in the Gospel.
Then the Arab taxicab driver drove us down the mountain with hairpin curves, no guardrails, and dangerously close to the edge, and every wonderful, holy thought I had was scared out of me. That's what life is like, isn't it? Mountains and valleys, glory and exaltation, and I need both. Our religion is all about the glory and the dignity we have as sons and daughters of God.
You know, when I remember that, and when I am in touch with that, there's a little mantra that goes through my mind: Who am I? I'm a child of God. What do I have? Everything. What do I need? Nothing.
When I forget that I am a child of God, the mantra goes like this: Who am I? I'm a child of the world. What do I have? Nothing. What do I need? Everything. It's like there's this big hole inside, and I keep trying to fill it up with all sorts of things that don't do the job. That is the meaning of sin in its deepest sense.
So what does that say to us today? Well, as I was thinking, we are living in hard times. We're surrounded by hardship and misery. I was talking to our St. Vincent de Paul people the other day -- and by the way the number of home visits and the number of people willing to do that is going up. What is it like doing home visits -- putting them on the spot.
Melba: Well, since Shirley went with me this week, I'm going to ask her help sharing in this, too. It's gosh, it's a real privilege, to start with. This week when we went out we are getting more calls for home visits. There are more people in need. There are more people that weren't in need before, now that are, people who've lost jobs that have been selfsufficient up until now.
But, this week when we went out we saw a variety of that kind of thing, and the thing that I think and Shirley mentioned this the thing that I think that really impressed and this happens over and over and over again is we go to these people who have nothing, and some of these people really do have nothing. I mean, you walk into these houses that have no heat, sometimes the water's been cut off or is about to be cut off, they don't have beds, they don't use stoves and refrigerators, things that we take for granted. And they are grateful for anything we give them. And if we don't have stickers for a stove, they are grateful for anything else that we can possibly give them.
You're talking about I can't remember the language you used but "a child of God." I see this in these people all the time. And it's a really humbling experience because I'm not usually there. It also makes me very grateful, grateful for what I have, but also grateful that I have the opportunity to actually meet these kinds of people. I don't know, Shirley, how do you feel?
Shirley: Well, I was struck by several different things. I remember this one home we went to that was on the second floor, and they had no furniture except for one bed. And this young man well, he's in his thirties, he's pretty young to me, or forties, I don't know he was saying that his son was in a, his 15 yearold son was in a group home and that he was going to be released. So he was trying to set up a place for them to live. And, you know, we asked what he wanted, "Well, do you want a couch?"
"Well, that would be fine, yeah, if you can get that."
"And an end table and a lamp? How about a chair?"
"Well, no, I think we can get along without that. Somebody else might need that."
And then we talked about dishes, and he said, well, he doesn't have any dishes except some mugs. So we told him that, because there were just two people there, that we would be able to give him two plates and two bowls and two sets of utensils.
And he said, "Oh, that would be wonderful. I understand that everybody has need, and that's all that we need and we are grateful for that, we don't want to take any more than we need." And he also told us that he had just lost his job. He worked for the Salvation Army in their store and it was just a part time job, and that he, that people weren't coming to the Salvation Army to buy anything. So it was, what struck me is that they had the selflessness, I guess, the wanting of not to take more than they really needed and the concern at the same time for other people's needs.
It's a very humbling experience, and I could tell you the same story about three or four of the other families that we visited. Thank you.
Fr. Larry: Contrast that with people who want more and more, even though they know it's being taken away from other people who need.
Back and forth, overwhelming need around us, and yet, if we could see through the physical surroundings to the point where God is creating and giving life and calling people to life, we would be overwhelmed by the beauty of what we see. And this is what happened on the mountain. Yes, there is this man who is going to fail. He's going to be rejected. He's going to be put to death. But who is he, really? He is God's beloved Son, and God is saying, "listen to him."
Well, look around you. If you could see each individual here at that point where God is creating, breathing life into each individual and loving him or her as a beloved son or daughter, what would you see? Well, I don't know about you. Sometimes I get a glimpse of the mountain, and then I try to hold onto it like Peter did let's build three tents and stay here and poof, it's gone, but then the test is can I believe that what I saw was real and continue to live for it?
Labels: Homilies
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