Readings:
• Gen 12:1-4a
• Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
• 2 Tim 1:8b-10
• Mt 17:1-9
“Life is short; death is certain,” wrote St. John Henry Newman, “and the world to come is everlasting.” It is a fitting introduction to today’s readings, for together they form a powerful discourse about the life, death, and eternity.
There are several rich, if subtle, connections to be found between the reading from Genesis, which describes God’s covenant with Abram, the reading from St. Paul’s second letter to the young Timothy, and the Gospel reading, which recounts the Transfiguration on the mountain. The three that I’ll highlight here can be summarized as calling, blessing, and anticipating. And while these three are always essential to the Christian walk, they have perhaps an even greater force of meaning during the Lenten season.
Calling: The first words of God to Abram (or at the least the first words recorded) are a call to faith and action: “Go forth from the land of your kinfolk…” In a culture in which one’s extended family was the core of one’s social and religious life, this was a call to a completely new life. It required immense trust, especially since Abram would likely never return to see his father’s household and his homeland. But the promises of blessing were just as immense: “I will make you a great nation, and will bless you…” This blessing, of course, was presented in material, temporal terms; there was not yet an understanding of blessings in the afterlife. And so Abram anticipated blessings of a temporal sort: land, a great name, offspring, and far-reaching renown.
Blessing: Paul’s words to his spiritual son, Timothy, could also be applied to Paul’s spiritual father, Abraham, who was saved and called to a holy life, not according to his works, but according to God’s design. And, conversely, God’s words to Abram could also be applied in a certain—but far more profound—sense to the Son of God: he was called to go forth and enter “a land”, that is, first-century Israel. And he became Incarnate so that he would be a blessing to “all the communities of the earth”, and would build a great nation, the Church (cf. 1 Pet 2:9). By taking on flesh and becoming man, Paul notes, God’s grace was “made manifest”. Our savior Christ Jesus, having entered a fallen and sinful land, would destroy death and bring everlasting life.
Anticipating: While in the desert, Moses the lawgiver had taken Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu with him up the mountain to see God (Ex 24:9ff). Elijah the prophet had also been in the presence of God on the mountain (1 Kng 19:8ff). Yet despite having close communion with God, both men experienced rejection at the hands of their own people. Jesus, in taking Peter, James, and John up Mount Tabor, was calling them to a deeper discipleship, to a clearer (and unsettling) understanding of Jesus’ identity and calling, and their own identity and calling. They were blessed, but their blessing came by the way of the cross, for the cross is the doorway to communion with God.
Benedict XVI, in his 2011 Lenten Address, wrote, “The Cross of Christ, the ‘word of the Cross’, manifests God’s saving power (cf. 1Cor 1: 18), that is given to raise men and women anew and bring them salvation: it is love in its most extreme form.” The Transfiguration was a foretaste of the power and glory of God; it was a grace meant to shine in the dark night that enveloped the apostles following the crucifixion. It would remind them of their calling, make real their blessing, and keep alive their anticipation.
“The Gospel of the Transfiguration of the Lord,” wrote Benedict XVI, “puts before our eyes the glory of Christ, which anticipates the resurrection and announces the divinization of man. … He desires to hand down to us, each day, a Word that penetrates the depths of our spirit, where we discern good from evil (cf. Heb 4:12), reinforcing our will to follow the Lord.”
(This “Opening the Word” column originally appeared in the March 20, 2011, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
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Thank you, Carl, for sharing these deep insights on the Cross, the Transfiguration, and divinization. The quotes from Benedict XVI are precious. Crux spes unica.
A sign of contradiction that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Christ and Cross are inseparable. He is the Narrow sheepfold gate his Cross the synonymous doorway. Suffering need not be explained by CS Lewis. Because suffering pain is a simply understood divide of those willing to imitate Christ and bear the anomaly of suffering simply for a good, or better for the very salvation of others from others. Although Lewis does arrive at that fundamental truth at the end of a long excursion, “Perfect goodness can never debate about the end to be attained, and perfect wisdom cannot debate about the means most suited to achieve it” (CS Lewis The Problem of Pain).
True Love coming from Jesus’ Divinization of us comes through the Three Nails of His Holy Cross: Self-Sacrifice, Self-Denial and Self-Transcendence in surrender to HIM. As a Deacon friend of mine likes to say: “Everything else is just context and commentary”. Our absolutely unique individuality gets progressively and infinitely liberated, exalted, and empowered by those Three Nails over anything this impostor world can offer: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”, (Galatians 2:20). Divinized by the Highest Divine Love!
Therefore, we need to fight these three impostors to the death and crucify them, starting right inside of us: self-glorification, self-justification and self-sanctification. The sinful ego must die on the Cross that our real, authentic, God-given self can be born. The world can’t kill someone who has already died with Jesus (Matthew 10:28). When we physically die, we become the living immortal seed of many more True Christians! That’s a super sweet, very temporary death! The Cross is the Bridge there!!
Hello Phil,
You are sounding a bit like a ‘faith alone’ Protestant. Do you agree that faith in Jesus means to obey Jesus, which is to love God, and that Jesus tells us that He will Judge us into Eternal Life through His Blood on the Cross, based on our faith through our love for God, which is our faithful obedience to God?
Possessing Faith in Jesus great enough to Move Mountains, Yet Jesus burns them in hell as ‘Evildoers’, V.S., Martin Luther’s, “Faith Alone”, “Sin Boldly, ‘No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day’”
Matthew 7:21 The True Disciple.
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. When that day comes, many will plead with me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ have we not prophesied in your name? have we not exorcized demons by its power? Did we not do many miracles in your name as well? Then I will declare to them solemnly, I never knew you. Out of my sight, you evildoers!
John 14:15
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Excellence of the gift of love.
Now I will show you the way which surpasses all the others. If I speak with human tongues and angelic as well, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and, with full knowledge, comprehend all mysteries, if I have faith great enough to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 John 5:3
For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome
John 15:22
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but as it is they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me also hates my Father. If I had not done works among them that no one else ever did, they would not have sin; but as it is, they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But in order that the word written in their law might be fulfilled, ‘They hated me without cause.’
John 5:27
“The Father has given over to him power to pass judgment because he is Son of Man; no need for you to be surprised at this, for an hour is coming in which all those in their tombs shall hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done right shall rise to live; the evildoers shall rise to be damned.”
Catechism 2068 The Council of Trent teaches that the Ten Commandments are obligatory for Christians and that the justified man is still bound to keep them; The Second Vatican Council confirms: “The bishops, successors of the apostles, receive from the Lord . . . the mission of teaching all peoples, and of preaching the Gospel to every creature, so that all men may attain salvation through faith, Baptism and the observance of the Commandments.”
So funny! You bring an intentional and total misinterpretation and misrepresentation of what I really said by bringing a barrage of Bible verses, a typical Protestant tactic. Then you bring the Council of Trent (I hugely encourage everyone here to read today’s MAGNIFICENT (very accesible and revealing) article (3-04-2023) on “The Catholic Thing” on the Council of Trent by a medieval scholar).
That article from the Council of Trent that you bring has NOTHING to do with what I wrote and absolutely nothing to do with the article here that I am commenting on. You must have poor reading skills or a sly attitude, or both, so I remind you that the title of the article is: “The Cross is the doorway to communion with God”, and does not include commentary about the Commandments. Your accusation that I am being somehow “Protestant’ is baseless, bizarre and forced, and it points to another typical Protestant anti-Catholic tactic: transference and projection of the actual negative reality of the one doing the accusing.
The cross symbolizes the end of all things natural…our possessions, our hopes, and even life itself. It also symbolizes deliverance. It is an ultimate paradox. The fear of the Lord and embracing the cross is the beginning of the wisdom that makes such symbolism glorious. If we begin with the fear of God, we need to fear nothing else…even the cross. That is freedom. If we reject the fear of God we are enslaved by the fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15 (ESV) through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
To extrapolate on our understanding and experience is helpful for one another. We may not arrive at the same conclusion, yet food for thought and heightened spiritual awareness is the goal. When we love Christ, we attempt to walk according to Christ!
The purpose of the church is salvation and to assuage our doubts. Are the words and walk of Christ to be treated lightly?
Some prefer aids to worship as opposed to veneration of Christ Himself! What is better for our eternal soul? Let every knee bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord.
Thank you for this insight. We’re better off for it!