Lenten Reflection: 2nd Sunday (Year C)

Father David Brown, O.S.B.

A little girl was once asked what a saint is. Perhaps thinking of a stained glass
window she had seen, she said, “A person who lets the light shine through.” That’s not a
bad description of the Transfiguration, which is the gospel for this 2 nd Sunday of Lent.
Jesus certainly let the light of his divinity shine through.

What is the point of the Transfiguration? First, it helps us to understand that even
though Jesus was executed as a common criminal, he was nevertheless a righteous
man. The voice from the cloud reaffirmed Jesus as God’s beloved Son – an echo from
Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan.
Second, the transfiguration is meant to strengthen the faith of the disciples.
Jesus wants them to understand that his death will not be the end of the story, nor a
reason to give up all hope.

Peter tells Jesus in the gospel, “Lord, it is good that we are here.” But where are
they, and how did they get there? They are on a mountaintop with Jesus, who is shining
in full divine glory. They got there by following Jesus, both literally and figuratively. But
their journey could not end there. They had to follow Jesus back down the mountain to
the daily challenges of being his faithful disciples, and to understand that even in the
midst of those challenges, it was good for them to be there.

Where are we? Like the disciples, we can climb to the mountaintop of glory only
from the solid plain of ordinary daily life. It is “here” in our everyday challenges and
decisions that salvation comes to us. It is “here” in our daily encounters with Jesus that
we follow in his footsteps. It is “here” in our constant faithfulness that we are brought to
our own transfiguration. Wherever Jesus is, it is good that we are there with him.
The first two Sundays of Lent set before us a strong contrast. Last Sunday, it was
temptation.

This Sunday, it is transfiguration. In both temptation and transfiguration, we
are with Jesus. The promise of the gospel is that resisting temptation leads us to a glory
far greater than what temptation can offer us. Resisting temptation is our pathway to
transfiguration, to our also becoming people who let the light shine through. Lord, how
good it is that we are here!