Most Reverend Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv DD STL, Bishop of Parramatta
Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent, Year C
Readings: Gen 15:5-12; Phil 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:28-36
Transfigured into Christlike pilgrims of hope
Dear friends in Christ,
We live in a time of change. A process of what we call secularisation is taking hold of the church and the society. It is manifesting in many ways. It’s not just the critical shortage of priests and religious. Out of 100 Catholics only more or less 10 are practising. We are being reduced in number and impact; some would say an irrelevant minority; we are being exiled by the secular culture in which we live. We no longer enjoy the status we once had. The sexual abuse crisis has made sure of that. In many ways, the church is in uncharted territory.
We are like the Jews on their way to the promised land. They wanted to go back to Egypt when the journey became too hard. Yet the spirit of God called them forth and enabled them to march forward. This same spirit is with us today and he also encourages us to walk the unknown pathways ahead, with courage, with perseverance and with trust in the God of history.
We must not lose sight of the invitation to embark on a new adventure with God as he helps us to step out of the old and into the new. It is not in yearning for or holding on the known and the familiar but in reimagining the future and venturing into the unknown chaos like the old Exodus that we shall find new life.
Scriptures on this second Sunday of Lent give us a poignant lesson in overcoming our fears and in living our lives with courage, vision and hope. In the first reading from Genesis, Abram – a name which means great father – was called to undertake a journey of transformation: he would leave his familiar surroundings and people in order to become God’s instrument for a renewed creation. He would become Abraham, meaning “Father of the multitude”.
Abraham’s journey was a giant leap of faith, a leap into the unfamiliar, insecure and vulnerable. He abandoned every form of human security and placed his trust solely in God. Abraham teaches us that faith is not synonymous with certitude, satisfaction and fulfilment. So often, Christian faith has been distorted into prosperity, power, arrogance, violence and scapegoating against the weak and vulnerable. The God of Abraham accompanies us on a journey of vulnerable trust, solidarity and relational fidelity.
Thus, to follow this God is to relinquish the default position of self-interest and to walk the path of openness and compassion.
Abraham’s journey of transformation through faith is also reflected in the story of the Transfiguration. It took place at a critical moment on the way to Jerusalem. The disciples had confronted the question “who do you say that I am”. Jesus had revealed to them that he was going to be not a powerful Messiah of popular imagination but a suffering servant. In contrast with the powers that be, he had opted for the road less travelled, the unpopular pathway of humility, service and selflessness. The disciples, however, were still transfixed on power and glory.
In the Transfiguration, they were given a moment of encouragement and an unmistakable message.
“This is my Beloved Son, listen to him”.
These words can be understood as an invitation to follow Jesus in his imminent suffering, passion and death. The Transfiguration is meant to give them new courage to walk the painful journey ahead that would ultimately prove to be the litmus test of Christian discipleship.
Dear friends,
The Gospel uses the word that is akin to metamorphosis to describe the Transfiguration. Perhaps that is what we the Body of Christ need to undergo as we shake off the old vestiges of the imperial Christendom with its penchant for triumphalism, power, pomp and circumstance. Such relinquishment is required for us to rise to new ways of embodying the Gospel of powerlessness, simplicity, service and compassion. Living the paschal pattern requires us to divest from the worldly accretions of power, influence and affluence.
Our faith today is also being put to the test as that of Abraham and the disciples. Like them, we are challenged to overcome our fears and doubts. We are challenged to walk the journey of transformation by living out the demands of our pilgrim faith.
This requires of us to have the courage to let go of the familiar and secure, the courage to launch into the deep, with everything that it entails.
As we gather in faith, we commit ourselves to move from the default conventional wisdom to the wisdom of God, based on self-emptying love. This was what Abraham learned from his journey into chaos and what disciples also learned from Jesus’ downward mobility model of behaviour. Let us deepen our relationship with him, reaffirm our commitment and pledge our unwavering fidelity to his way of the cross. Most of all, may we be inspired by the example of Abraham and of our Lord himself in turning our journey of despair to hope, and darkness to life-altering experience.
