COLLECT: “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”.
Gen 12:1-4a; 2Tim 1:8-10; Mt 17:1-9.
“LORD, GIVE ME SUFFICIENT GRACE TO MOVE INTO A HOLY LIFE, A PLACE OF BLESSING"'
Where is heaven located? Do we all want to go to heaven? Today’s scriptures, all three readings present to us what heaven is; “’a holy life, a place of blessing’”. We do not know where it is but we believe it is there and we are all journeying here on earth to enter it. However, not all of us will be there, only those who do what is expected of us will attain it. The spirit of sacrifice is needed for us to be led like Abram and Paul into this “holy life, this place of blessing”.
We are once again called upon to strive for holiness. This fits in very well with the general theme for the Season of Lent: “To be holy as God our Father in heaven is holy”. Truly, during Lent, God usually calls us from our sinful life to a life of holiness, “He saved us and called us to a holy life….”(2Tim 1:9). This call to holiness in life involves “metamorphosis”, transformation, renewal and “metanoia”. It involves some transfiguration. We are called during this Season of Lent to change our sinful hearts to good and holy hearts, our sinful lives and actions to good and holy ones.
Sacrifice, which leads to tremendous blessings both in this life and in the life-after, is a key word to any successful transformation or change of life. This calls for foregoing or letting go of certain things in our old as well as in our present lives and activities that are not pleasing to God and neighbour. This may not be achieved so easily on a silver platter. However, Abram, Jesus and Paul were able to achieve that and they are great examples for us to emulate in our efforts to undergo some metamorphosis during this grace-filled season of Lent.
When God called Abram, he moved out in faith from his homeland, Ur to Haran and finally to Canaan. This could be like Abram was called by God to leave and move from his physical world to his place of blessing, his heaven. At his call, Abram in faith made a radical decision to sacrifice his comfort, his familiar home/environment, his friends and property on the altar of obedience to God’s Command and Will and therefore he travelled to a new land where God promised to build for him and his descendants, a great nation. Abram indeed had all the comfort and security at home, from his friends and property yet he had to let all go to carry out God’s plan for him.
This is a very good lesson for us during this season of Lent. There are a lot of things that we think give us ultimate comfort and security in this life and in this world, and therefore we attach ourselves so much to them that, we do not ever want to let them go.
Meanwhile, these probably do not please God and our neighbours. During this Lent season, let us make a conscious effort to identify them and fast from them.
Once again, Sacrifice, indeed, is a great virtue which involves letting go or giving up certain things of lower value to attain or embrace things of higher value and standards, holy life, a place of blessing. It involves choosing certain things and forgoing others.
In the religious sphere, it means forgoing other things that bring me personal comfort and security, to allow me carry out God’s plan for me. This cannot be achieved easily. There will certainly be pain, suffering, hardships, sometimes persecutions and so on. The only way to get over this is through self-discipline, persevering and enduring faith that what I am painfully sacrificing in this present time will lead to the attainment of something praiseworthy, honourable, admirable, everlasting and valuable. This is the encouragement St. Paul offers Timothy, the young Bishop in the second reading (2Tim 1:8).
At his transfiguration, where Jesus’ divinity is specially revealed to the world, he is shown and presented to the world as the beloved Son of God, the Messiah, whom people should listen to. This experience also presents Jesus as one who would suffer persecution and die for carrying out the plan and will of his Father. This episode of the Transfiguration has been a golden chance to prepare the Apostles for the impending shocking Passion and Death of Jesus on the Cross. It was also to prepare them for their impending persecutions and sufferings.
God invites all of us during this spirit-filled season of Lent, to go through a certain transfiguration, transformation and metamorphosis within us so that at the end of this Lenten Season we may be as holy as our heavenly Father is. May we sincerely do that. Let us pray for that persevering and enduring grace and faith to sacrifice the things that give us temporal comfort and security only in this life on the altar of things of higher value. May God grant us permanent and lasting comfort and security after this earthly life in heaven. We also pray that just as God led Abram and Paul to “holy life”, may he do the same for us. May God shower His abundant blessings upon us and let His grace raise us up from our sinful nature to the state of divine grace. GOD BLESS YOU.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, SUNDAY, ON THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES: ‘THE RESURRECTION, THE ASCENSION, THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE ASSUMPTION, AND THE CORONATION’. (WE PRAY FAITH, HOPE, LOVE OF GOD, GRACE OF A HAPPY DEATH AND TRUST IN MARY’S INTERCESSION) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen”.
PRAYER: “AS WE RECEIVE THESE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES, WE MAKE THANKSGIVING TO YOU, O LORD, FOR ALLOWING US WHILE STILL ON EARTH TO BE PARTAKERS EVEN NOW OF THE THINGS OF HEAVEN. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN”.
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.com
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