Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast, where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Glory to you, Lord.
Jesus took Peter, James and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them.
His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, lord, it is good that we are here.
If you wish, I will make three tents here. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
Listen to him.
When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid.
But Jesus came and touched them, saying, rise and do not be afraid. And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone.
As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them. Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
It is very much human nature to view Scripture and in fact view our faith tradition with a particular lens that belongs just to us.
And the lens we use is based on a lot of factors. It's based on the culture that we were raised in, it's based on our family experience, sometimes based on our education level, and it's based sometimes on the circumstances that we've experienced.
And while these lenses may all have some similarities, when they and places where they overlap, they can tend to be uniquely ours.
But I want to suggest at least a little tweak to the lens we view the Lenten season with, because I think by tweaking it just a little bit, our experience of this time of Lenten retreat can get a bit richer.
And the lens I want to encourage you to use for the rest of Lent is one that recognizes and looks toward the human side of Jesus.
Because I think if we can take this Lenten time and look to and emphasize Jesus humanity, we can see in this journey he's making toward Jerusalem, a richness in love and sacrifice that can be extremely powerful.
Because part of our nature is to overemphasize, at least in my opinion, Jesus divine side.
And what happens when we do that is that he seems so in control of absolutely everything that it can seem like he's simply going through the motions for us to witness.
Where, if we look at it from the human side, it's much easier to see that there was suffering and struggle and trial and doubt, all those things that each one of us faced throughout our lives.
And to view that Lenten journey for him in one that has human weakness and struggle, at least for me, makes what he did for us so much more profound, so much more loving.
And this particular gospel, the transfiguration, always tends to be interpreted from the side of the disciples who witnessed it and for those who would hear about it for centuries later, us.
So we see Jesus transfigured before them, and it becomes abundantly clear that there is something profoundly special about him.
So much so that we have that voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son, with whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him. And that's an instruction for us as it was for Peter, James, and John.
But here's where that other lens can come into play.
Imagine that those words that were spoken were just as much spoken for Jesus to hear himself.
Words of encouragement, words of confidence, words of trust.
So that as he was going to face serious trials, serious struggles, serious doubt, he could lean back on the fact that the Father said, I trust you completely. I am so pleased with you.
I am with you.
And I think those words would have given him that extra strength to get through whatever he had to face.
And seeing it from that lens, we could also recognize that that love, that presence, that trust is given to each one of us and that the struggles and trials that we have to face, we can recognize that we don't face them alone.
For the Father's love remains with us.
