{"id":1311,"date":"2014-03-16T12:04:04","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T16:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1311"},"modified":"2014-03-16T12:04:04","modified_gmt":"2014-03-16T16:04:04","slug":"homily-second-sunday-in-lent-year-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/homily-second-sunday-in-lent-year-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily – Second Sunday in Lent, Year A"},"content":{"rendered":"

2nd<\/sup> Sunday in Lent, Year A<\/a>
\nGenesis 12:1-4a
\n2 Timothy 1:8b-10
\nMatthew 17:1-9
\nMarch 16, 2014<\/p>\n

God tells us Abram (Abraham) to leave the land he has known and his father\u2019s house to go to \u201ca land that I will show you<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abram could have asked a lot<\/i> of questions.\u00a0 Where is this land?\u00a0 What am I supposed to do when I get there?\u00a0 Why leave here?\u00a0 What will it be like and what will I need to take with me?<\/p>\n

Abram doesn\u2019t ask any of that.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t ask anything.\u00a0 We are simply told that \u201cAbram went as the Lord directed him.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

Abram had a great faith in the Lord.\u00a0 Won\u2019t it be nice to have that same faith?<\/p>\n

Paul writes to Timothy, \u201cBear your share of hardship with the strength that comes from God.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 We like to think that if we just believe in Jesus, then we won\u2019t have any problems.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that isn\u2019t the way it works.\u00a0 In fact, it can actually add to our hardships because people ridicule us for our faith.<\/p>\n

Oh, to have the faith of Abram.<\/p>\n

There are various stories in the Bible and even today in the lives of the saints for those who persevered in faith.\u00a0 There are also stories of those whose faith wasn\u2019t perfect.<\/p>\n

Peter became the first among the Apostles but his faith was not perfect.\u00a0 When Jesus asked the disciples \u201cBut who do you say that I am?\u201d, Peter was the one to say \u201cYou are the Christ\u201d showing a strong faith but then immediately Peter rebukes Jesus.\u00a0 Peter has faith but it is an imperfect faith.<\/p>\n

Jesus was going up on the mountain to pray and he takes Peter, James, and John with him.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Jesus wants them to see what happens!<\/p>\n

And what happens is not small thing!<\/p>\n

Jesus is transfigured!\u00a0 His face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white<\/i>.\u00a0 In essence, he was transfigured so that Peter, James, and John could see Jesus as he really is in his glory.<\/p>\n

That alone would have been an incredible site to see.\u00a0 But that isn\u2019t all they saw.\u00a0 With Jesus standing there in his glory, Moses and Elijah appeared there with him.<\/p>\n

To see Moses and Elijah would have been incredible by itself but with Jesus transfigured it serves to reveal who Jesus really is.\u00a0 Moses is the image of the Law, the Law that was given by God.\u00a0 Elijah is one of the great prophets, deliverers of God\u2019s message.<\/p>\n

Moses and Elijah standing there with Jesus serve as confirmation that Jesus is not some random prophet but comes in fulfillment of the Law and the prophets.<\/p>\n

Imagine yourself standing there.<\/p>\n

Peter is amazed and says \u201cLord, it is good that we are here.\u201d\u00a0 <\/i>That much is clear but Peter continues, \u201cIf you wish I will make three tents here.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

It may seem silly to us that Peter would speak of putting up tents when Jesus is standing transfigured before him with Moses and Elijah.\u00a0 Two thoughts, first this could be a reference to the Feast of the Tabernacles.\u00a0 Secondly, I would suspect that Peter is so stunned by what he sees that he doesn\u2019t know what to say but feels he must say something.\u00a0 He realizes he is in the presence of something incredible.<\/p>\n

Would we feel or do any different?<\/p>\n

Jesus was transfigured to be seen as who he truly is.\u00a0 We hear this reading today in the context of Lent.\u00a0 Lent is about conversion so we can listen to this passage asking ourselves what it is we need to change in our lives, how do we need to be transfigured.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t easy to make changes in our lives.\u00a0 It takes a great faith and Jesus wants us to have this great faith.<\/p>\n

Jesus knew Peter did not realize what it meant to say Jesus is the Messiah.\u00a0 Jesus knew Peter\u2019s faith was weak.\u00a0 That\u2019s why he allowed Peter to see him transfigured.<\/p>\n

Jesus knows our faith is not perfect.\u00a0 That is why the Holy Spirit inspired the gospel writers to write down stories like the Transfiguration so that we might understand who Jesus truly is so that we might have a great faith in him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2nd Sunday in Lent, Year A Genesis 12:1-4a 2 Timothy 1:8b-10 Matthew 17:1-9 March 16, 2014 God tells us Abram (Abraham) to leave the land he has known and his father\u2019s house to go to \u201ca land that I will show you.\u201d Abram could have asked a lot of questions.\u00a0 Where is this land?\u00a0 What …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Homily – Second Sunday in Lent, Year A’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-l9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1312,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions\/1312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}