STAND UP, DO NOT BE AFRAID
Second Sunday of Lent, 2020
In these early days of Lent we are generally we are focusing our attention on Passion of Christ. In this church each Friday lunch time we have the Stations of the Cross. We are celebrating Mass in purple vestments with no Gloria and no Alleluia. Today, however, we have a Gospel which feels very different. Like the three disciples Jesus calls to go up the mountain with him, we encounter Christ in glory.
In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus has just told the disciples that he is going to “suffer grievously at hands of the elders, the chief priests and he scribes and be put to death and to be raised up on the third day”. Peter’s reaction to object, “this must not happen to you”. Jesus response is, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because you are thinking not as God thinks but as human beings think”. This same Peter is one of those Jesus takes with him. What they encounter is Christ transfigured. Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets appear and speak to Jesus. This shows Jesus as the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets. The promises God makes to Abraham in our first reading are fulfilled in him. This is confirmed by the voice of the Father from the cloud, “This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.”
Peter and James and John are overwhelmed. We are told, “they fell on their faces in fear”. This is the familiar reaction of those who encounter God in the Old Testament. The next line is peculiar to Matthew’s account. Jesus comes up and touches them. This is the healing touch we have seen in the miracle stories. His message to them is the same as in the Old Testament stories, “Stand up, do not be afraid.” When the look up no one except Jesus. The Jesus the know, the Jesus they have been following, the Jesus who has come and share all the limitations of our human life. This is the Jesus who comes not in power and glory but the “suffering servant” who is going to give his life for us on the cross.
The Transfiguration serves to prepare the disciples for the experience of the Passion. Having seen the glory of Christ they will be more ready to understand what they will experience during Holy Week. Even the they run away and Peter denies Christ.
For us the message of today’s reading is the same, “Stand up, do not be afraid”. We can trust in the one who we see glorified, the one who became one like us, died for us and rose again. We can trust him in the small things. We can trust that he is with us as we try to deepen our service of God through the things we do in Lent. We can trust even if we struggle and get disheartened. We can trust in the big things. We are preparing to celebrate the great message of hope. Whatever we experience in this we know, as Paul tells Timothy in our second reading, Jesus, “has abolished death, and he has proclaimed life and immortality through the Good News”. Lent is about preparing to celebrate that Good News. Easter gives us the confidence to hear the message of Jesus, “Stand up, do not be afraid”.
Fr Chris Pedley S.J.