GENESIS 15:5-12, 17-18, PHILIPPIANS 3:17—4:1LUKE 9:28-36
Fr. Daniel Evbotokhai
Transfiguration: A covenant of transformation
Today’s gospel reading presents us with Luke’s account of the transfiguration of Jesus. The word ‘transfiguration’ means a change of form or appearance. In the gospel Jesus’ appearance changes and “His face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light.”The transfiguration was a further revelation of the identity of Jesus as the Son of God to some of the disciples. Jesus revealed his glory in the presence of chosen witnesses so that the scandal of the Cross might be removed from the hearts of his disciples when it comes. Thus, the transfiguration is for us to be strengthened so that we may not be disfigured. If we must be transfigured we must do the following:
HAVE PRIVATE PRAYERS: Jesus loved to communicate with his Father in spite of his busy schedules he made time to meet privately with him. Many Christians today have settled for public or communal prayers after that nothing more. Many Christians are so busy with their personal lives that they hardly make out time to pray privately. When we do not pray privately we destroy our personal relationship with God. Any Christian who fails to pray disconnects himself from the source of power.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE PRAYER: If you tell some persons go and pray it is like engaging them with a boring task. Some see no need to pray, many want result but do not want to be intimate with the Father. Beloved, prayer has the capacity to change our look, the story of his transfiguration shows that when we connect to God, we reflect the glory of the Father. When we pray our form or figure can change, having heavenly semblance. It also configures us to the heavenly figure. St Paul tells us in the second reading that Christ will change us to be like his glorious body. This glorious body is the likeness or nature of God. That is, the likeness of holiness, love, kindness, joy, peace, etc.
FOLLOW JESUS: Jesus went with Peter, James and John to a very high mountain. His choice of these men was not because they were prayer warriors, or perfect, neither were they better than the other disciples. It only shows that they were only privileged to have been invited by the Master to reveal his glory to them. This privilege of being invited by the Lord has been extended to many of us today. But many refuse to climb. If we dont climb we can’t see his glory and we shall not be Strengthened to overcome the scandals of the cross.
CLIMB THAT MOUNTAIN: To climb a mountain such as Horeb is a difficult task; it requires a lot of determination and endurance. The disciples must have endured to climb the mountian. We too must learn the path of endurance. Do not be intimidated or discouraged by the mountain of challenges you are facing as you follow Jesus; think of his glory that will be revealed. St. Paul in 2 Cor. 4:17 calls them momentary afflictions that work for us eternal rewards. Therefore, when you have a mountain set before you climb it with Jesus, climb it in the name of Jesus, and climb it for Jesus and you shall receive the crown of unfading glory. No matter how dangerous the path may be, those who walk with Jesus will come out safely. In the first reading Abraham trusted in the Lord, he went on the direction he was called to follow even though he never knew what the future looks like. He was faithful and God blessed him exceedingly. Only men of trust and determination can be transformed.
SPIRITUAL PARTNERS: Don’t climb mountains alone even Jesus did not climb the mountain alone he went with Peter, James and John. Have prayer partners, who can climb that mountain with you and the first of them is Jesus. Invite Jesus to walk with you. Again, at the mountain these men were heavy with sleep but stayed awake. Good partners will keep you awake and alert. Similarly, in Matt. 26:40, “Jesus returned to the disciples and found them sleeping. “Were you not able to keep watch with Me for one hour?” At times we sleep when we are supposed to be praying, when we pick up the rosary we sleep, when we come to the Church we sleep; but we need spiritual partners who can stir us up. Men have business partners who are ready to fight business risk with them, children of God must equally learn to bond in Spiritual matters. For this reason the Church encourages her children to be at least an active member of any praying society in the Church. Just as Jesus came to wake them up, the Church wakes us up saying in her alarm the night is far gone.
STAY IN GOD’S PRESENCE: Peter said’ “It is good for us to be here.” Peter’s statement shows the beauty of the presence of God. This teaches us that there is a feeling of awesomeness in the presence of the Lord. No other presence can be compared with the presence of the Lord. Ps. 122:1 says I rejoice when I heard them say let us go to the house of the Lord. Ps.114:9 I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living. Ps.16:11 In the presence of God there is fullness of joy. Outside the presence of the Lord is chaos, bribery and corruption, immoralities and evil. It is sad when some people come into the Church and are not aware of God’s presence in their dress, noise, lies, play etc. Let us desire and revere his presence.
LET US PRAY: O God, who have commanded us to listen to your beloved Son, be pleased, we pray, to nourish us inwardly by your word, that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Fr Galadima Bitrus (OSA)
GOOD AND GLORIOUS GOD
Last Sunday, the first of Lent, we were invited to draw nearer to God through prayers and to the poor through fasting and almsgiving. On this second Sunday of Lent, the readings call on us to contemplate the goodness of God with Abram who, in the 1st Reading (Gen 15:5-12.17-18) receives the promise of descendants too numerous to count, and to contemplate the glory of the Lord with the apostles, Peter, James and John, who in the Gospel (Lk 9:28-36) behold Jesus transfigured in the company of Moses and Elijah, two other great figures of the Judeo-Christian tradition who are themselves marked by their privileged experience of the manifestation of divine presence and glory, which theologians call, “Theophany”.
While enjoying these rosy experiences of divine goodness and divine glory, we are also cautioned not to get stuck there. The second reading points out the fact that walking with God also involves embracing the way of the cross and moments of trial which we must not run away from, as the unfolding of the stories of both Abram and the apostles will eventually show us.
Our today’s meditation focuses on the 1st Reading from Gen 15. It is the account of the promise God made to bless Abram and make him great, and because Abram thought his childlessness as a barrier to any future greatness, God assured to give him an offspring (15:1-6) and to give to his descendants a land of their own. The gift of the land, however, was to be preceded by four hundred years of slavery and landlessness (15:7-21). Abram believed the Lord, who counted that for him as righteousness.
The term used for Abram’s believing is “’āmān”, which in the Hebrew Bible has the sense of “trusting profoundly in a person”. Abram’s trust was indeed profound, because it was trust in the fact that from childlessness, he will be the father of a great nation constituted by a multitude as numerous as the stars of the sky. It was profound trust because his wife was barren and both were of advanced age, yet he trusted. It was profound trust because, the gift of the land to his descendants was not to be fulfilled in a year or ten but after four hundred years, long after Abram. Therefore, his kind of trust amounted to or was reckoned to him as righteousness (ṣədāqāh).
Note that here righteousness is not equated with moral perfection. In fact, the story of Abram will reveal a series of moral inadequacies but his profound trust that the promise made to him by the Lord will be fulfilled is counted as righteousness.
Points for meditation:
§ How big is your problem or that which you see to be an obstacle to the realization of your full potential? Remember Abram and his wife were both already old and childless, yet he still became the father of a great nation.
§ How long have you waited and may probably be wondering if it will come to pass? Remember it took Abram’s descendants four hundred years to finally come into possession of the land of promise.
To hear God’s Word to people who are in seemingly impossible situations, also read Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:17; Zechariah 8:6 and Lk 1:37.
As we continue with our journey of conversion during this Lent, let us pray for the grace of profound trust in the Lord, knowing that no matter how impossible it seems and no matter how long it takes, the Lord is able to do it for us. For with God, nothing is impossible. Our God is Good and Glorious!
