Homily: 2nd Sunday of Lent 2016 - "It is good for us to be here"

Brothers and sisters, on this 2nd Sunday of the great season of Lent, I say to you in the words of Saint Peter in the Gospel today, “it is good that we are here.” Now, St. Luke tells us that when he said, “it is good that we are here” St. Peter didn’t quite understand what he was saying. “It was good” that Peter, James, and John witnessed the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor, so good in fact, that Peter wanted to prolong the experience by building tents for Moses and Elijah to stick around for a while.  It was good for them to be there, but St. Luke insinuates that Peter really didn’t know why it was good.

So, why was it good? Let’s look a little deeper.  Jesus led Peter, James and John on this grueling hike up an exceedingly high mountain — an exertion of at least several hours — in order to pray with them. They could have prayed anywhere, right? They could have prayed in Peter’s home, they could have prayed on the side of the road, in an open field, or down by the Jordan river.

But, mountains are special places of prayer and encounter with God throughout the Bible. Moses encountered the glory of God after climbing Mt. Sinai. God spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper on Mt. Horeb. The Temple was built on the top of Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. At the top of a mountain we can breathe fresh air. We can gain a different perspective, seeing so much more than we can when we’re immersed in so many things on the ground.

Coming to Mass is a lot like climbing the mountain; we come to a special place—a church building—in order to offer our most sacred act of worship, the Eucharist. Sometimes non-practicing Catholics will tell me that they don’t need to go to Mass in order to pray: they can pray anywhere.  That’s true.  But, one, you can’t fulfill your Sunday obligation by just praying anywhere, and two, we see Jesus in the Gospel leading his disciples to special places to pray: a mountain, a secluded place, the upper room where he celebrated the last supper, and the cross—where he offered the most perfect sacrifice to the Father, himself.

Mass even begins a lot like the Gospel today.  The Gospel began with a procession up a mountain, Mass today began with a procession up towards the altar.

And like a mountain top experience, Mass is to help us encounter God, gain a new perspective in life and breathe a breath of the Spirit’s fresh air that we can’t get sitting on our living room couch.
It was good that they went up the mountain with Jesus, but that’s not the only reason. Why else was it good? Well, the old testament figures Moses and Elijah showed up speaking to Jesus about the exodus he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. In the books of Moses and the prophets in the old testament we read about how God works to bring about the sanctification and salvation of his people. So Moses and Elijah’s appearance at the transfiguration shows that the work of God for the salvation of souls was now culminating in Jesus.

Here is another parallel with the Mass.  At Nearly the Old Testament appears right next to the New Testament, just like on the Mount of Transfiguration, to show how the promises of the Old are fulfilled in Christ.

Today we heard in our Old Testament reading, about God’s promises of a multitude of descendants to Abraham, and then Abraham performed a sacrifice.

Now look around this church. You are the fulfillment of that promise. You are the descendants, members of the Church, the body of Christ. And a sacrifice, the one sacrifice of Christ is perpetuated in our midst, which is the well-spring of our communion with God and with each other.
It was good for Peter to recognize Jesus as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, but that’s not the only reason it was good for him to be there.

It was good for them to witness Jesus’ transfiguration, when his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.  Peter, James, and John, got a glimpse of the glory of Christ that will fully be revealed in heaven.

Here is another parallel with the Mass.  Just as at the transfiguration, at every Mass there is a miraculous change.  Bread and wine are changed into the body of blood of Jesus Christ and they are lifted up on the altar for all to behold.

It was good for Peter, James, and John to hear the voice of the Father speaking.  Perhaps, at Mass, we too can hear the Father speak in the silence of our hearts, the voice telling us to listen to, to follow, the teachings and commands of Jesus.

It was good for Peter, James, and John to fall silent after God spoke; being silent was probably the smartest and best thing they did. So too at Mass, we have moments of silence, to allow the impact of our celebration to really sink in.

But again, it was not simply these things that made the experience of the transfiguration good.
To know why it was good, you need to know a little bit about the Gospel of Luke, the verses surrounding the transfiguration story.  Immediately prior to Saint Luke’s account of the transfiguration, we read about a very important conversation between Jesus and his disciples.

You know the conversation well: they were walking through the region of Cesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his disciples about do people say that the son of man is.  Peter makes the profound confession, “Jesus, you are the Messiah of God”. Then Jesus drops the big one: he says, I must greatly suffer and be killed, and if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

There can be no real life without the cross. You can imagine when Jesus told his disciples they too must die if they want to truly follow him, this was a bit of a downer.  So in the very next passage in Luke’s Gospel, we climb the Mount of Transfiguration.  Jesus gives Peter, James, and John a glimpse of his transfigured glory to show them the life they will inherit if they take up the cross and follow him.

This is why the transfiguration was so good: it prepared the apostles to not lose faith when they saw their Messiah being crucified, and it prepared them to take up their own cross and proclaim the good news to the world.

And here is our final parallel with the Mass, perhaps the most important one.  It is good to gather together in this holy place, it is good to listen to the words of Scripture, it is good for us to behold the lamb of God who becomes present in our midst, who becomes our spiritual food. But it is good because it prepares us to go out and to carry our crosses.

In the 2nd reading today, St. Paul lamented the Christians who were conducting themselves as “enemies of the cross” as he called them: their stomachs, their appetites, their pleasures became more important to them than following Jesus.

Let it not be the same for us.  This Eucharistic celebration, this encounter with Jesus Christ, prepares us to face and carry our cross, to suffer for the sake of the Gospel.  That might mean sharing the Gospel with non-believers, that might mean turning away from the pleasures of the flesh, that might mean financial sacrifice, the sacrifice of our time, talent, and treasure, it might mean doing battle with demons, as Jesus does immediately upon descending from the mount of transfiguration.  It is good that we are here, because here we are prepared to carry our cross, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.