Catholic Caucus: Sunday Mass Readings, 02-24-13, Second Sunday of Lent

February 24, 2013

Second Sunday of Lent

Reading 1 Gn 15:5-12, 17-18

The Lord God took Abram outside and said,
“Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.
Just so,” he added, “shall your descendants be.”
Abram put his faith in the LORD,
who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.

He then said to him,
“I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans
to give you this land as a possession.”
“O Lord GOD,” he asked,
“how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
He answered him,
“Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat,
a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
Abram brought him all these, split them in two,
and placed each half opposite the other;
but the birds he did not cut up.
Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses,
but Abram stayed with them.
As the sun was about to set, a trance fell upon Abram,
and a deep, terrifying darkness enveloped him.

When the sun had set and it was dark,
there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch,
which passed between those pieces.
It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram,
saying: “To your descendants I give this land,
from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates.”

Responsorial Psalm Ps 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14

R. (1a) The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Hear, O LORD, the sound of my call;
have pity on me, and answer me.
Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Your presence, O LORD, I seek.
Hide not your face from me;
do not in anger repel your servant.
You are my helper: cast me not off.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Reading 2 Phil 3:17—4:1

Join with others in being imitators of me, brothers and sisters,
and observe those who thus conduct themselves
according to the model you have in us.
For many, as I have often told you
and now tell you even in tears,
conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Their end is destruction.
Their God is their stomach;
their glory is in their “shame.”
Their minds are occupied with earthly things.
But our citizenship is in heaven,
and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He will change our lowly body
to conform with his glorified body
by the power that enables him also
to bring all things into subjection to himself.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters,
whom I love and long for, my joy and crown,
in this way stand firm in the Lord.

or PHIL 3:20—4:1

Brothers and sisters:
Our citizenship is in heaven,
and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He will change our lowly body
to conform with his glorified body
by the power that enables him also
to bring all things into subjection to himself.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters,
whom I love and long for, my joy and crown,
in this way stand firm in the Lord, beloved.

Gospel Lk 9:28b-36

Jesus took Peter, John, and James
and went up the mountain to pray.
While he was praying his face changed in appearance
and his clothing became dazzling white.
And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus
that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep,
but becoming fully awake,
they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus,
“Master, it is good that we are here;
let us make three tents,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
But he did not know what he was saying.
While he was still speaking,
a cloud came and cast a shadow over them,
and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.
They fell silent and did not at that time
tell anyone what they had seen.

2nd Sunday of Lent: "Listen to Him"

(Carl Bloch)

This is my chosen Son; listen to him. (Lk 9: 35)

Sunday Scriptures: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/022413.cfm

Gen 15: 5-12,17-18

Ph 3: 17-4:1

Lk 9: 28b – 36

Sometime, our daily prayer can seem rather tedious, routine, repetitive, or done by habit. How long, for example, does it take you to pray the Rosary or to recite the Our Father or grace before meals? It sounds like a race for the finish rather than a call to meditate on the mysteries of our Lord or pray in a meaningful way. Some Catholics are notorious time keepers during the Mass - ready, set, go, goodbye - all before the closing prayer, announcements, final blessing and song. That's our "eat and run" crowd. (Sorry to be sarcastic but allow me to reveal a little pastor frustration).

However, now and then many can admit that while reading a scripture passage, receiving Our Lord in the Eucharist at Mass, during a slow meditative recitation of the Rosary, or a thought that inspires us and seems to come from outside ourselves, we see the mysterious grace of God at work. Such moments confirm our faith and keep us going in the more mundane times when God invites us to simply sit with him.

Some have had more mysterious encounters: a claim to have seen an angel or sensed an inner voice or may have woken from a dream in the middle of the night that seemed to be a spiritual message. Yet, many of us may keep these things to ourselves thinking that, “If I tell someone they will think I’m crazy or just have a wild imagination.”

In the end, we may also wonder if such things were just our imagination or God speaking to us in some way. Such spiritual encounters must be tested, of course, to be verified but these experiences are certainly not beyond the power of God. Quite frankly, I think many folks have such divine meetings more often than we realize.

This Sunday’s Gospel passage from Luke 9: 28 -36 may have been such an experience for the three chosen disciples of Jesus: Peter, John and James. As they traversed down the mountain with Jesus they may have wondered if they indeed saw what they saw and heard who they heard. “Was it just a dream?” After all Luke tells us that, “Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake . . .”

The transfiguration of Jesus with his appearance of the long dead prophet Elijah and the great leader of the Hebrews, Moses, may have caused them to wonder. In addition, they had never seen Jesus so dazzling with light. Yet, Luke makes the point of saying that they had, “become fully awake.” Nonetheless, such an incredible vision may have ranked in the, “Did that really happen?” category. If so, what does it mean?

Such human questions may have crossed their minds but it is clear this moment was transforming. Yet, they likely did not realize the full implications of what they saw. It would take the dark days of Jesus’ passion and death to be followed by the glorious resurrection to put all things in perspective.

In a sense we may see this revelation of Jesus in glory as a kind of Kodak moment. Hold on to this. Keep it before you for the future will be trying. The cross may shake your faith but this experience will be your hope. There is something more beyond the cross yet to be revealed. As we look in a month’s time to Holy Week it makes sense for us to hold on to this vision as well. Here the Father’s voice was heard: “Listen to him.” For the three disciples and for us to listen to the Lord must be the focus of our life. The Father’s voice also spoke long before the coming of Jesus.

Our first reading from Genesis relates the profound promise that God made to Abram – our father in faith: “Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so shall your descendants be . . .” (Gen 15: 5 ff). Such a cosmic vision of future family connections may have been more than Abram could comprehend at the moment but indeed it has been played out over the centuries since. Many before, many today and many in the future will come to know the one true God and his Son, Jesus Christ. God binds us together with him in a covenant of love. Though it is a bond of unequal partnership (we are not God) his overwhelming promise has been fulfilled in the incarnation and the work of the Holy Spirit since.

So on the mountaintop, Peter, James and John, envisioned the fulfillment of that promise. The law given through Moses and the Prophets who foretold of the future coming of a savior is now fulfilled in Jesus. On a merely human level, such a profound truth, accompanied with this extraordinary mystical vision before them, was good enough reason to see the reaction of the disciples: “They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen.” (Lk 9: 36). The future will explain everything.

When is the last time you felt struck with awe to the point of silence? Were you ever confronted with something so puzzling that you simply had nothing to say at the moment? Truth be told, every time we attend the celebration of holy Mass, we see a miracle before our eyes. It is not for no reason that the Church refers to the Eucharist as the “source and summit of our Christian life.” (Catholic Catechism 1324).

Every sacrament is an encounter with the risen Christ. Hidden behind bread, wine, water, oil, fire, hands of the priest imposed, and ritual is the action of divine grace washing sin away, anointing us with the Holy Spirit, and feeding our souls with the bread of angels who is Christ himself. Such theology, like Abram and the disciples on the mountaintop may elude us in its fullness but invites us to explore its meaning more deeply.

These remaining weeks of Lent can be just a perfect time to do so. The beauty of ritual is that it can connect us to the divine but the downside is that it can become routine. While every Mass is not the same (prayers, theme, colors, readings, music all change), for example, we need to remind ourselves that in its familiar structure great mystery resides. Christ is always present in word and sacrament. How I receive him, am open to that presence and seek to be changed by it is up to me. As the saying goes, “I pray not to change God but to be changed by him.”

I think it good that we all take some time this Lent to ponder the meaning of our faith. In this Year of Faith we already have a reason to do so. Maybe even be bold enough to ask the Lord to reveal himself more deeply to you. You never know when that mountaintop experience may come but we must all remember that it is in the valley below where our mission is carried out in Jesus name.

Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God,

and our ears to the voice from heaven that everyday calls out this charge:

If you hear his voice today, do not harden your hearts. (Ps 95: 8)

The Rule of Benedict

Fr. Tim

A Mass of the Transfiguration

It is a curious fact of liturgical history that originally this Second Sunday of Lent had no Mass of its own. The Roman clergy and people were tired from the long night vigil that began on the evening of Ember Saturday and ended at dawn with the Holy Sacrifice. Only when the solemn night vigil was pushed back to Saturday morning did it become necessary to put together a separate Mass for Sunday morning. But what a Mass it is! From beginning to end today’s Mass bathes in the radiant light of the transfigured Christ.

Introit

The Introit is, in many places, the same one sung on August 6th, the summer festival of the Transfiguration: “Of you my heart has spoken: 'Seek His Face.’ It is your Face, O Lord, that I seek; hide not your Face from me” (Ps 26:8-9). The Church sings of what she holds deep in her heart: the desire to gaze upon the Face of Christ. The melody itself rises and lingers over the words vultum tuum, your Face. The Introit ends in a plea, at once humble and confident: “Turn not away your Face from me” (Ps 26:9).

The Way

The Church, in every age and in all her children, is called to fulfill the command addressed to Abram: “Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father’s house, and come into the land which I shall shew thee” (Gen 12:1). The Church knows that so long as the Face of her Lord shines before her she can follow Him even along the way of the cross. He who says, “I am the way” (Jn 14:6), was lifted up on the cross, becoming the signpost pointing to “what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor 2:9). Relentlessly God calls us out of what is familiar, out of our routines (even our pious ones) into the uncharted vastness of faith, “into the land that He will show us” (Gen 12:1).

Seeing Only Jesus

In the Church’s choice of today’s Introit there is a very practical teaching for our own Lenten journey. We are to focus not on our sins, nor on our weaknesses, nor on the roughness of the path beneath our feet, but on the Face of Christ. The Introit wonderfully anticipates the words of Saint Matthew in the gospel: “And they lifting up their eyes saw no one but only Jesus” (Mt 17:8).

Psalm 26

The psalm that accompanies the Introit describes the fear of one threatened by attackers on all sides. Psalm 26 is the prayer of one thrust into the fray of spiritual combat. And yet, it teaches us to say, even in the midst of the battle: “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life: of whom shall I be afraid” (Ps 26:1). Again, note the link between the introit and the gospel. “And Jesus came and touched them: and said to them, 'Arise and fear not’” (Mt 17:7). Looking into the eyes of her Saviour, the Church says in the words of the psalmist, “Of whom shall I be afraid?” (Ps 26:1).

Ad Gloriam

This Sunday of the Transfiguration follows the Sunday of the Temptation. This too is full of meaning and of practical teaching for us. Saint Paul addresses Timothy with a stern realism: “Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God” (2 Tim 1:8). The beginning of the way of the cross is beset with hardship, with temptations. Holy Father Benedict knew this well. He speaks of all the things that are hard and repugnant in the way to God” (RB 8:8). The return to God is through “the toil of obedience” (RB Pro: 2), the hard listening that changes life. There is no return to God apart from the way of the cross, and there is no other way to glory. The ultimate tragedy is our refusal to follow Christ ad gloriam, to glory (RB Pro: 7).

Eyes Fixed on the Face of Christ

Dame Aemiliana Löhr says that “the essence of temptation is the desire to make short-cuts in the way, to come of one’s own power to glory, and to despise the appointed hours; to go round the cross.” “Man’s part,” she says, “is only to go his way, to be patient, to suffer, and to wait. The final glory is God’s to give at the hour which He alone knows” (The Mass Through the Year, Volume I, p. 171). Today’s liturgy says, “Go your way, but with your eyes fixed on the Face of Christ. Be patient, suffer, and wait, seeking at every moment and in all things His Face.”

Collect

The Collect reminds us that without the sustenance of God’s word we will suffer spiritual malnutrition, grow weak, and falter. This is why the Church has us pray: O God, who commanded us to listen to your Son, the Beloved, deign to feed us inwardly by your word.” The soul who, engaged in spiritual combat, slacks off in the practice of lectio divina or allows herself to become indifferent to it, will become spiritually anemic. The soul “inwardly fed by the Word of God” will enjoy a growing clarity of vision. Seeing more clearly, she will be able to follow Christ more closely. Strengthened inwardly, she will be able to walk more securely, until, as the Collect says, “with the eyes of the heart made pure,” she rejoices at the sight of the glory of God.

Offertory Antiphon

Today, the Offertory Antiphon is the voice of the Church reflecting on everything spoken to her in the Liturgy of the Word. The command of the Father speaking out of the bright cloud calls for a response. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: listen to Him” (Mt 17:5). While the bread and wine are made ready she takes a moment to ponder what has been said to her, and she makes a resolution. What does she resolve to do? “I will meditate on your commands which I love exceedingly; with arms flung wide I will stretch toward your commandments for I love them” (Ps 118:47-48). The antiphon is taken from Psalm 118 wherein every reference to the commandments, the law, the statutes of God become, for the Church, a reference to Christ, the beloved Son. The Church resolves today to “set nothing before the love of Christ” (RB 4:21). She addresses the Father who spoke to her in the Gospel, and moved by the Spirit, makes this bold resolution. The melody itself is full of energy and tenderness. “I will meditate on your Christ whom I love exceedingly; with arms flung wide I will stretch toward Christ for I love Him.” It is this prayer that readies us for the Holy Sacrifice.

Shines Like the Sun

We cannot step into the sacrosanct core of the Mass without encountering the love of Christ, without coming face to face with “the love of God which, being perfect, drives out all fear” (RB Pro: 67). Every fear, every terror “melts like wax before Him” (cf. Ps 67:3) whose “Face shines like the sun” (Mt 17:2). Exposure to the brightness of the Eucharist, -- a brightness veiled beneath the appearances of bread and wine -- is exposure to the love of Christ and to the radiance of His Face.

And Night Shall Be No More

After Holy Communion, made aware of this we will pray to the Father, saying that, “while we are yet on earth He gives us to partake of things of heaven.” What are these things? The book of the Apocalypse tells us what they are: “And they shall see His Face: and His name shall be on their foreheads. And night shall be no more and they shall not need the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall enlighten them, and shall reign forever and ever” (Ap 22:4-5).

My Light and My Salvation

With the Face of Christ before us and His light surrounding us we can go forward, even into the dark uncharted territories of faith. “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” (Ps 26:1).

One Bread, One Body

<< Sunday, February 24, 2013 >>

Second Sunday of Lent

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18
Philippians 3:17—4:1
View Readings

Psalm 27:1, 7-9, 13-14
Luke 9:28-36

SLEEPING IT OFF

"They appeared in glory and spoke of His passage, which He was about to fulfill in Jerusalem. Peter and those with Him had fallen into a deep sleep." —Luke 9:31-32

When Jesus talks about the cross, we tend to doze off, if not physically, then at least spiritually. Did you ever notice what the subject was at the times when you fell asleep in church or fell asleep praying? You may find yourself snoring or at least daydreaming when Jesus brings up the cross of self-denial and self-sacrifice. When Jesus was suffering the agony in the garden of Gethsemani, the three apostles He took with Him had fallen asleep (Lk 22:45). At Jesus' Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus about His "passage" from earth to heaven. This "passage" included Jesus' sufferings on the cross. Once again, we find Peter, James, and John in "a deep sleep."

Sleep can be used for rest or for escape. We are tempted to use it for escape, especially when it's time each day to take up our cross and follow Jesus (Lk 9:23). We need a wake-up call. Jesus' Transfiguration was an unsuccessful attempt to wake us up to the cross. However, Pentecost was successful. Filled with the Holy Spirit, the early Church carried the cross.

Beginning this Lent, let's quit sleeping through Jesus' command to share in His agony and suffering. Let's have "com-passion"; let's suffer with Him. "Awake, O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light" (Eph 5:14).

Prayer: Father, may I suffer with Jesus and be glorified with Him (Rm 8:17).

Promise: "Take as your guide those who follow the example that we set. Unfortunately, many go about in a way which shows them to be enemies of the cross of Christ." —Phil 3:17-18

Praise: Praise You, risen Jesus. Heaven and earth are full of Your glory!

February 24, 2013

Second Sunday of Lent

Reading 1 Gn 15:5-12, 17-18

Responsorial Psalm Ps 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14

Reading 2 Phil 3:17—4:1

or PHIL 3:20—4:1

Gospel Lk 9:28b-36

The Glory in Sight: Scott Hahn Reflects on the 2nd Sunday of Lent

From Temptation to Transfiguration

Dominus Illuminatio Mea

Seeing Love in the Darkness

One Bread, One Body

SLEEPING IT OFF