Go! Do Not Be Afraid!

(Homily for the 2^nd Sunday of Lent Yr. A)

        It will not be out of place to underline the theme of Vocation as the most evocative theme in today’s readings. The theme of God’s call, vocation dovetails into the three readings in different degrees. And by inference, we can equally say that this theme is in connection with the theme of faith, which is the human response to the divine call. Therefore, our message today revolves around the theme of God’s call and man’s response orchestrated by faith. And the locus of this as manifested in the first reading and the Gospel is an unknown land where Abraham goes for the realization of his divine mission and to the Mountain of Transfiguration, where Jesus called his three apostles the second time and on that mountain his divine salvific mission was revealed.  In the first reading, we see the episode of the call of Abraham, where God invited him to leave his country and go to an unknown land. In the Gospel passage, Jesus took three of his apostles to Mount Tabor and revealed himself to them in a unique and divine experience, his Mission as New Moses, New Elijah and the Son of God. Lastly, in the second reading St. Paul reminded his disciple Timothy and all Christians the holy call we received from God, which has to be the source of trust in the power of God, to the point of suffering for the Gospel.

        The first reading (Gen. 12:1-4a) evocates the acts of God in the history of mankind, for often theologians speak of the mighty acts of God in history. But many a times one may ask: how can we conceive today a God who acts in human history? Indeed, our passage from the book of Genesis is suggestive of one of the ways God acts in history. God intervenes and acts in human history by calling some vital individuals and establishing a covenant with them, and it is through these human responses that a channel for the execution of God’s designs is manifested in the world. At first, God tried with Adam and Eve, but it ended on a sad note (cf. Gen.3). Afterwards, He entered into covenant with Noah and his descendants (cf. Gen.9:9-11). Again, after Noah, there was need of establishing a new covenant and constituting a new people of God, for this God called Abraham to enter into covenant with him. In order to realize his will, many a times God enters into a close rapport with man, in a rapport characterized by call and response. It is under this interpretative key that we can understand better, God’s gesture and the obedient gesture of Abraham. Abraham in obedience left his country and set out for an unknown country, and it is as a result of that, that God made him, a great nation and a blessing to all the nations of the world. When the Lord calls, he attaches a promise. In Abraham we see an expression of an authentic human response to God’s call, a call that was addressed to a series of key individuals, starting from Abraham and culminating in and with the person of Jesus Christ and his apostles. It is on the basis of the above, that St. Paul used Abraham as the paradigm of faith. Faith in this panorama is conceived as an obedient response to the call of God, which opens up channels and avenues for the redemptive actions of God in the history of mankind.

      For Abraham the voice of the Lord was expressed with the words we heard in the first reading: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house.” Abraham was at peace with his people, he was happily married with Sara and probably desiring to be surrounded by his own children and to enjoy his old age. But God wanted him out of that comfort zone! Behold, the mysterious voice of the Lord came to him: “Go from…” It is indeed humanly speaking a painful command, but on the part of God it is not for deception, because what God promised him is greater than what he asked of him (Abraham): “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”, And we were told that “Abraham went as the Lord told him.” This movement in the life of Abraham is a maximum expression of faith, little wonder, so many years after that event, he is still considered as “Our father in faith.” God called him and sent him to an unknown destination, and he responded trusting in the Lord, even though he was unaware of what awaits him. He made a qualitative leap of faith! The call of God necessitates an “es tasis”, that is an exodus from oneself, it is a radical self-emptying. It is the abandonment of all the human securities: country, house, affection and material means. And the only security and guarantee given is God’s word, his faithfulness and his promises. A great lesson from Abraham is that: faith is all about trusting God even when you don’t comprehend his plans and where he is leading you to.

        The Gospel passage (Mt. 17:1-9) presents the event of Jesus’ transfiguration. And as a matter of fact, it is not by chance that we are called to reflect on this event at this particular time in the liturgical season of the church, because the transfiguration looks forward in anticipation to the Passion and subsequent glorification of Jesus at the Resurrection event. St. Mathew situates the event of the Transfiguration in the part of his Gospel where he speaks about the revelation of the Messiah (13:53-17:27); the solemn proclamation by Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:13-20) and lastly after the proclamation of the Passion (16:21-28). The word transfiguration simply means change of figure, and symbolically, it is an anticipation of the resurrection. Put in another way, it means giving up the present figure and obtaining another one. Thus, he transfigured before them or he changed in appearance.  In the Transfiguration of Jesus we see rays of Jesus’ divinity, which was somewhat hidden by his humanity, he offered us an anticipation of his future glorification and demonstration that his death on Calvary will not be the end, there is the resurrection, death will not have the final word!

        In his narrative, Mathew provides a number of fascinating factors: ●Mathew and Luke unlike Mark mentioned about the change of Jesus’ face and countenance respectively, “his face shone like the sun” (v.2). ●Only Mathew compared the whiteness of Jesus’ garments to light (v.2). The splendour of his face and the whiteness of the garments indicate the glory of God manifested in Jesus. ●Moses and Elijah are the two of the most important figures in the Old Testament, Moses represents the law that Jesus has come to bring to fulfilment, while Elijah represents the prophecies that Jesus has come to realize. He is therefore the Promised Messiah. Jesus is the New legislator who will give men a unique commandment and the synthesis of all other commandments: love, and as the new prophet who will proclaim to men the secrets of the heart of his Father. Thus as the new Moses and new Elijah he will realize his vocation and manifest the love of the Father. ●What was the content of his discussion with Moses and Elijah? Only St. Luke opined that Moses and Elijah were speaking “of his exodus, which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Lk. 9:31), that is, his Passion. ●Mathew like the other synoptic reported the voice that came from the cloud saying: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, listen to him.” The content of the message of the voice of the Father is a revelation that in terms of what Jesus does (his works) he can be compared to Moses and Elijah, but at the level of being he is more than them, because he is the Son of God! Secondly, we are all invited to listen to him, listening to him entails following his examples and threading the paths he has charted for us. And truly Abraham in the first reading shows us by an existential example what it means to listen to God, which is equivalent to trusting in his word and abandoning oneself in Him. The voice of the Father from the clouds reveals who Jesus is: “This is my Son.” God the Father reveals that Jesus is not only a man, He is also God. The context of the transfiguration event is a place where God declared the mission of the Son: “This is my beloved Son, listen to him”. After the Father’s voice, Jesus readily climbed down from the mountain of glory to the valley of human predicament and suffering. While he was coming down from the mountain Jesus ordered his disciples not to talk about the transfiguration until after his resurrection. ●In Mathew, there was a command of silence until after the resurrection. Mathew reported this command, Mark said: ‘he charged them”, but Luke omitted it. Why this command? It is because it will lack logicality, if the transfiguration is disclosed before the death and resurrection that would imply glory without the cross. At the heart of this narrative is the age-long assertion: “No cross, no crown”.

        Indeed, let us imagine the scenario at Tabor, before the apostles: Peter, James and John, and the vision of the transfigured Lord. It was indeed an atmosphere of glory and indescribable peace that made them to be bewildered and overwhelmed. Then out of bewilderment and fear, Peter spoke up: “It is wonderful for us to be here.” They wanted to remain there. Peter went as far as coming up with a concrete step on how to realize that dream or project: “I will make three booths.” At the heart of that event, Mathew tells us that the disciples were afraid, and Jesus intervened and calmed their fear with his reassuring touch and voice. As a matter fact, the Scriptures portray fear as man’s reaction to a theophany. “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me and said, Do not be afraid…” (Rev. 1:17). And this fear was conquered only by the encouraging word of Jesus (cf. Mt. 14:27; 28:5, 10). Jesus came and touched them, saying; “Rise, and have no fear”, and they began to walk down to plain ground. There is a human tendency to remain in a place considered to be a comfort zone, just like the three apostles, even though they were afraid, but the mountain at that point became a comfort zone and they wanted to remain there to enjoy the tranquillity mountain and the “divine display”. They wanted to remain in the mere vision of glory, but Jesus led them down to the plain ground where he has to face his destiny on the Cross, where they will see the real glory, not a vision. Many a times, we are also like the apostles who desired to remain on mount Tabor, without realizing the necessity of passing through Calvary.

     What are those places and environments in your life that you have declared: “it is wonderful to be here”, of course, with the desire to remain there? Examine those moments and places very well and see if they lead you to your destiny, to your goal, to your dreams and aspirations in life, or they will only cause a spiritual abortion to the realization of your dreams. It is really true that sometimes the Lord leaves us in such places or environments for sometimes and he comes later very close to us to say: “Rise, do not be afraid.” In fact, in the destiny of every man or woman, especially of every Christian, there is a Tabor, a place, a situation from which he or she has to climb down in order to climb the Calvary, to arrive at a real glory not a mere vision. Therefore, we all make this experience, but what makes the difference is the attitude of each person. Here, the disciple of Jesus has to distinguish himself or herself from a non-believer. How? By and through the response he or she gives to that invitation of Jesus: “Rise”, not just rise, but rise and move down towards the realization of your goal. Drawing the issue further, the transfiguration of Jesus is a sign and a prophecy of what will become of us one day. Our Christian life is tailored in being and becoming, between reality and hope, between the already and the not yet. Our being, our reality or our already is in Christ. Little wonder, the apostle reminds us: “You are in Christ Jesus” (1Cor. 1:30).

     In the second reading (2Tm. 1:8b-10) St. Paul picks up the theme of the divine call and narrowed it down to the Christian calling. He emphasized that the call is by no means based on human merits, instead upon God’s purpose and design. Interestingly, this age long divine purpose has now been fulfilled and manifested in the person of Jesus Christ, who brought life and immortality to light. This wonderful presentation of Jesus as one who brought life and immortality into light introduces us to and situates us well into the context of the Gospel passage on the theme of Transfiguration.

     Above all friends, the message of the today’s readings reminds us that we are pilgrims, like Abraham, moving toward the land of promise. But our own pilgrimage is an inward pilgrimage. Just as God called Abraham, so he has called each of us. Though he may not call us exactly like Abraham to “your country and your father’s house” but he calls us to leave behind our old ways, greed, insincerity and selfish desires. Indeed, the direction of this existential pilgrimage is not geographical but moral: is a journey towards love, kindness and obedient to God’s word. Our own Promise Land is Heaven. Thus, in this season of Lent, the Church reminds us of this journey and calls us to conversion, the Church calls us in reality to repent and appropriate the experience of Abraham and that of the apostles on Tabor. In concrete terms we are called to accomplish three symbolic tasks or movements: to go from, to go down and to go. ●To go from: from the daily routines of life, from our Ur of the Chaldeans, where we are comfortable and relaxed: our comfort zone. ●To go: towards the land that the Lord will indicate, that is, towards the future of faith, opening oneself to the promises of God. In that episode, the land that God indicated to Abraham was the Promised Land, Palestine. But for us our own Promise Land is the kingdom of God, not just the kingdom of God after death, but already here in our midst. ●To go down: from Tabor entails going courageously towards God’s will, following the Lamb wherever he goes (cf. Rev.14:4). We need to embark on this existential and spiritual movement. The three apostles wouldn’t have arrived at the joy of the Resurrection, if they had remained on Tabor. Likewise us we cannot experience the glory of the Lord if we do not follow Him courageously, even when it means sacrificing our comfort zones, the things and persons that make us feel good.

        We cannot but remember the experience of Joseph, if someone who loved him wanted to show him favour, the person would have taken Joseph back to his Father, and not to Pharaoh, but the throne would have been aborted, he would have died, Jacob would have died, and that would have been the end of Israel. But Joseph needed to go to Pharaoh for the realization of his mission and no longer back to his father. “Pharaoh said to Joseph, I hereby make you governor of the whole of Egypt” (Gen. 41:41). And at the end, through the names given to his children he vehemently discovered God’s blessings and favour in disguise: “Joseph named the first-born Manasseh, Because, he said, ‘God has made me completely forget my hardships and my father’s house’” (Gen. 41:51); “He named the second Ephraim, Because he said, ‘God has made me fruitful in the country of my misfortune’” (Gen. 41:52). The path way to favour and blessing is not always positive and pleasing, many a times it comports pains and sacrifice. Abraham had to leave his father’s land and family, the three apostles had to follow Jesus and go down from Tabor, even though it was a wonderful place for them. Therefore, you too need to make a move. Go! Do not be afraid!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)