2nd Sunday of Lent: Restarting Lent from the Mountaintop

Last Sunday, first Sunday of Lent, the main symbol of our Lenten reflection was the desert—we begin Lent by entering into our desert. This second Sunday of Lent, our main symbol is the mountain top. Today’s liturgy suggests restarting Lent from the mountain top.

I missed mountain climbing. My last mountain climbing was in April 2016. I went with some friends to Mt. Manalmon in San Miguel, Bulacan, Philippines. Although it is a small mountain almost like a hill, the trek to Mt. Manalmon takes you to beautiful landscapes, including  Madlum River, whose rock formations and cold water compensate for the not so exciting climb.  Once at the top, however, you’ll get an amazing view of the Sierra Madre range to the east and Mt. Arayat to the north (as you can see from the photo above).

I’ve always felt a certain spiritual even mystical aura when on top of a mountain. It gives me profound peace and joy. Suddenly, all my worries and fears disappear. It feels I’m so close to heaven and to God.

The gospel for the second Sunday of Lent (years A and B) always tells the story of the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain. In today’s gospel from Mark,

Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them (Mark 9: 2 – 3).

Jesus’ transfiguration happened after his first prediction of his own passion, death and resurrection in Jerusalem.

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again (Mark 8: 31).

The disciples were utterly shocked and dismayed to hear these words from Jesus. This is epitomized by Peter’s vehement protest to Jesus: “This cannot happen to you, Lord!”  The disciples have looked up to Jesus as the Messiah who would be a strong and glorious earthly king, who can deliver them from their Roman oppressors and form once again a great and independent Jewish kingdom.

The problem is, the disciples only heard the passion and death part of Jesus’ words, not the resurrection. The second problem is they associated earthly power with Jesus’ mission. It is after this selective hearing and utter incomprehension of Jesus’ mission by the disciples that the Transfiguration took place. The transfiguration was Jesus’ way to reassure his disciples by showing them a preview of his glory. By giving Peter, James and John a foretaste of his resurrection, Jesus highlighted the future glory with God as the goal of all their suffering and hardships. Enlightened by this glorious experience, Peter, James and John began to ponder the meaning of “rising from the dead” as they go down the mountain.

As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant (Mark 9: 9 – 10).

The Greek word used for transfiguration is metamorphoo—this is the root of the English word, metamorphosis. We use the word metamorphosis more popularly today for the transformation of caterpillar to butterfly, likewise in the transformation of a maggot into an adult fly and the changing of a tadpole into a frog. These are some of the amazing wonders of nature that we can ever witness in our entire lives. It’s almost like a change from one creature to a totally different creature. Who would have imagine that a beautiful butterfly would come out of an ugly caterpillar? Indeed, metamorphosis is a reminder and a symbol for us from nature that something good can come out even from the messiest and ugliest reality of our lives. Change, even radical change is possible as nature have shown us.

This gives us the greatest hope and joy in anticipation of the transformation that will become of us and of God’s creation in the fullness of time. Jesus’ transfiguration was a foretaste of the metamorphosis that is to become of us at the end of time. The divine metamorphosis that occurred to the three disciples on the mountain top during the Transfiguration of the Lord will also happen to us and we will become “God-viewers.” Like them and all the Saints of the ages, God’s light will metamorphose our whole body and soul. We will achieve what is called Theosis (Deification) and shine as luminaries radiating the light of the knowledge of God. We will become partakers of the Divine Grace and communicants of God.

The story of the transfiguration of Jesus established by the church on the second Sunday of Lent highlights the resurrection of Jesus as the real purpose of Lent. The purpose of all that we do during the Lenten season is to partake of the new life that the resurrection of Jesus has given us. Lent is the season of “rising from the dead”.  Our dead and old selves will be changed into living and new selves through the grace of the resurrection of Jesus. This is also true for our world, Jesus’ resurrection is a symbol of hope for the change that will happen in the world from injustice into integrity, from hatred into kindness and from violence into peace. But as Jesus showed us, the only way to transfiguration and transformation is through suffering and ultimately dying to ourselves.  Change can only happen at the cost of ourselves.

It is in this context that Australian Redemptorist Fr. Kevin O’Shea suggests that we take a reverse journey during Lent. We begin in the end—the resurrection:

Suppose we could … do Lent backwards. Suppose, instead of Ash Wednesday, we started with Easter Sunday. Suppose we then thought what we would have liked to have done to make ourselves ready for our share in Jesus’ resurrection. It would be like a reverse Easter vigil, not for one night, but for 40 nights. Backwards.[1]

The object of Lent is the Resurrection of Jesus. Whilst rituals, penitence, fasting, prayer, almsgiving and our sins are important, they are not the primary goal of Lent. As we go through Lent each year, oftentimes, our focus is on the external rituals and acts of penitence.  In so doing, Lent becomes about us—our efforts, discipline, sacrifices and goals no longer about the victory of Jesus. When this happen the whole Lenten discipline becomes superficial, merely obligations that we have to go through but does not bring forth true change. Thus, come Easter, after all the observances in Lent, we become what we call in Tagalog, BSDU: balik sa dating ugali (back to old ways).

Lent begins with the profound belief that we are a redeemed people through the resurrection. This victorious reality is what we received from our baptism. Baptism endows our profound identity as a redeemed people through the resurrection of Jesus. That is why from the earliest history of the church, the church has set aside the whole 40 days of Lent as the preparation and training period of candidates for baptism, called catechumens. The catechumens are solemnly baptized at the end of the Lenten season on Easter Vigil. This worthy practice was revived by the church in recent years through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program. Thus, in Lent, we re-evaluate our lives in the light of our baptismal promises and identity. Lent is an academy where once again we relearn the meaning and implications and appreciate the wonder of baptism.

By returning to our victorious baptismal identity, Lent becomes a time for examining our participation in the resurrection of Jesus. Lent is pondering what “rising from the dead” means. The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope, that despite all our frailties and failures, our wickedness and weaknesses, God’s grace will redeem us over and over again. There is no human being, however evil or sinful, that is beyond redemption by Jesus’ resurrection. As nature have shown us, change, even radical change, is possible. This too gives us hope in a transformed world, that in the midst of too much suffering in the world around us and the seeming prevalence of evil in our world, goodness will triumph, Jesus will triumph, and we will reach our fullness and life’s fullness in God’s grace.

It is essential that we are utterly clear at the beginning of Lent that Jesus’ resurrection is the goal of the whole Lenten discipline. With this clear goal in mind, let us now restart Lent from the mountaintop of Jesus’ resurrection.

[1] Kevin O’ Shea, “Ash Wednesday,” cssr.org. Accessed 22/02/2018 at https://www.cssr.org.au/writings/dsp-default.cfm?loadref=2765