Second Sunday of Lent

Every 2nd Sunday of Lent the Church invites us to reflect on a very particular event in Jesus’s life: The Transfiguration. Within the grandeur of this pivotal episode, I want to point out one detail that I find striking—the humility of the Apostles.

The term humility comes from the Latin humus, which literally means “ground,” or “soil.” And it is within this literal understanding that the Gospel highlights the unmistakable humility of those three great Apostles.

The scene leads us up a high mountain with the apostles, and all of the sudden Jesus is transfigured and shown in all his glory—a glory that can only be hinted at by a comparison to the grandest object known to man at the time: the sun. Then who appears, but two of the greatest heroes of Jewish history, Moses and Elijah. Could you imagine the awestricken eyes of the apostles. Nothing they had ever seen could even compare to the reality unfolded before them.

I find it so human—so relatable—to the point of comedy, how the apostles respond. Feeling as if they have to say something, or have to do something to not just be such little observers, their leader starts saying how they could be of use—by making tents. Then the Gospel puts in a small detail here: “While [Peter] was still speaking” a cloud formed and the voice of God spoke. Just to highlight their smallness, Peter’s suggestion is completely ignored as the event reaches its unexpected crescendo: the voice of the Father. It is then that the Apostles understand and humbly fall prostrate.

I think there is a crucial lesson here for all of us. This period of Lent leading into the events of the Paschal mystery is a journey. And even though we do well to participate through our Lenten sacrifices—through our “doing something”—this is primarily a journey that the Lord is taking, and one in which, like the three Apostles, he is inviting us into. Let us not distract our gaze with our own works, but allow these Lenten sacrifices to remove obstacles, that we might better witness and rejoice over the act the Lord is accomplishing for us in this blessed time.  

Dust and to dust,

Michael Gokie