{"id":1775,"date":"2016-02-21T13:09:10","date_gmt":"2016-02-21T18:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1775"},"modified":"2016-02-21T13:09:10","modified_gmt":"2016-02-21T18:09:10","slug":"2nd-sunday-in-lent-year-c-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/2nd-sunday-in-lent-year-c-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"2nd Sunday in Lent, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

2nd<\/sup> Sunday of Lent, Year C<\/a>
\nGenesis 15:5-12, 17-18
\nPsalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14
\nPhilippians 3:17-4:1
\nLuke 9:28b-36
\nFebruary 21, 2016<\/p>\n

Abram, who will become Abraham, has been lamenting that he does not have any children.\u00a0 In Abraham\u2019s day this would have been huge.\u00a0 Children were your \u201cfuture\u201d, the mark you left on this world.\u00a0 It also meant no heir.\u00a0 The desire for children is natural and good.\u00a0 However, the desire for an \u201cheir\u201d may focus one on material things.\u00a0 Who will inherit all his possessions?<\/p>\n

God hears Abraham\u2019s cry and takes him outside to show him the stars.\u00a0 God tells Abraham to count them.\u00a0 Of course, there are too many to count.\u00a0 God promises Abraham his children will be as numerous as the starts.<\/p>\n

Abraham then \u201cput his faith in the Lord<\/em>\u201d and trusted God.\u00a0 Yet Abraham seeks something to \u201cseal the deal.\u201d\u00a0 God directs him to offer a huge sacrifice as a sign of the covenant He is forming with Abraham.<\/p>\n

Yes, Abraham seeks to seal the covenant but ultimately he believes.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t know how it will all come to be but he trusts God over human expectation.<\/p>\n

Peter, James, and John have become disciples of Jesus.\u00a0 They see him as a messiah who comes to defeat the Romans and restore the earthly kingdom of Israel.\u00a0 They have seen Jesus do miracles and preach but they do not yet understand who He truly is and what He will do as the Messiah.<\/p>\n

While they don\u2019t fully understand, they did put their faith in Jesus and follow him.<\/p>\n

Jesus goes to the mountain<\/em> to pray and He takes Peter, James, and John with him. Why?<\/p>\n

He goes to pray alone and He certainly doesn\u2019t need their help to pray.\u00a0 He brings them not to pray but to see what happens to help them take the next step in their faith journey.<\/p>\n

As Jesus is praying, Peter, James, and John fall asleep.\u00a0 As they awaken, they see Jesus transfigured and conversing with Moses and Elijah?\u00a0 Why was it important for them to see this?<\/p>\n

As they see Jesus transfigured, \u201chis faced changed in appearance<\/em>\u201d and his clothes become \u201cdazzling white,\u201d<\/em> they are Jesus in his glory, the way we will see him in Heaven.\u00a0 This is to help the disciples realize that Jesus comes from God.<\/p>\n

Moses and Elijah are present to show us that Jesus is not someone with an entirely new message.\u00a0 Moses\u2019 presence symbolizes that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law.\u00a0 Elijah\u2019s presence symbolizes Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies.<\/p>\n

Peter is so amazed but what he is seeing that he doesn\u2019t know what to say.\u00a0 He just wants to say something and he wanted the moment to last so he offers to build three tents for them.<\/p>\n

Peter, James, and John thought they knew who Jesus was but, in reality, they were only beginning to know Jesus.\u00a0 They still needed to convert their hearts to see Jesus not just as an earthly messiah but as our savior and redeemer.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for us?<\/p>\n

This story of the Transfiguration is written down in the gospels to help us, even today, understand who Jesus really is.<\/p>\n

How much do we really know about Jesus?\u00a0 We can all probably claim to know more than the disciples knew at the time of the Transfiguration.\u00a0 If nothing else, we know about <\/strong>his death and resurrection.<\/p>\n

Even so, the truth is that we are only beginning to understand who Jesus is.\u00a0 We cannot fully comprehend God until we are with him in Heaven.<\/p>\n

While we live in this world, we try to define God in earthly terms.\u00a0 We say God is everywhere but we struggle to be aware of God\u2019s presence.\u00a0 We struggle in affliction.\u00a0 It just doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

We want to have all the answers but that isn\u2019t going to happen.\u00a0 Sometimes I hear people say they are going to have a lot of questions for God when they are with him in Heaven.\u00a0 We might have lots of questions but I think that when we get to Heaven, the answers aren\u2019t going to matter much.\u00a0 We will so full of joy, the answers won\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

We do not have to wait for Heaven to have a taste of God\u2019s joy.\u00a0 God wants to make his presence known to us now.\u00a0 The problem is we need to stop focusing on earthly things to open ourselves to God.<\/p>\n

Do we have reason to be concerned about having enough food, a place to live, or clothing to wear?\u00a0 Sure but we must not let it consume us.\u00a0 That just causes us anxiety and the anxiety can keep us from feeling God\u2019s presence in our lives.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we just need to be like Abraham and put our faith in God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2nd Sunday of Lent, Year C Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 9:28b-36 February 21, 2016 Abram, who will become Abraham, has been lamenting that he does not have any children.\u00a0 In Abraham\u2019s day this would have been huge.\u00a0 Children were your \u201cfuture\u201d, the mark you left on this world.\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘2nd Sunday in Lent, Year C – Homily’ »<\/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-sD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775"}],"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=1775"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1777,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions\/1777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}