Learning to Read & Write

2nd Sunday of Lent (C)

Readings: Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18; Psalm 26 (27):1, 7-9, 13-14; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:28-36

Picture: By Elements5 Digital on Unsplash

My dear friends, what is it like to learn to read and write in a given language? Don’t we have to begin with a process of recognition? With learning to make connections? We are shown some marks on a page, and taught to recognise their connection with something else. A… is for apple, B… is for boy, C… is for cat, and so on. And as we keep reading and writing, doesn’t transformation take place in, around and through us? Not only do we gain new knowledge, our brains get rewired. The ways in which we see and relate to the world are changed. Our lives take on a different shape. And we, in our turn, are better able to mould our environment for the common good. Actually, aren’t recognition and transformation key aspects, not just in learning to read and write in a new language, but also in acquiring and expressing our faith? Isn’t this what the scriptures show us today?

How does Abram grow in faith? In the first reading, we’re told that God shows him the stars in the sky, and teaches him to recognise, in their huge number, the multitude of descendants the Lord will grant him. God also instructs Abram to perform a sacrificial ritual, which the Lord then teaches him to connect with the promise of a gift of land. God even allows Abram to undergo an experience of darkness and terror, out of which Abram receives signs of a new covenant. A fresh expression of God’s loving and steadfast commitment to him and his family. And we know that, as Abram continues to grow in faith and trust in God––as he keeps learning to recognise and submit to God’s presence and action in his life, even and especially in dark times––transformation takes place in, around, and through him. His name will be changed to Abraham. He will become the father of Isaac, whom he will later be asked to offer to God in sacrifice, and through whom Abraham will eventually become our father in faith.

Recognition and transformation. Don’t we find these in the gospel too? Most clearly, of course, in the change in Jesus’ own appearance. But why does the Lord lead Peter, James and John up the mountain in the first place? As we will be reminded shortly, in the Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer, it’s to show… by the testimony of the law and the prophets, that the Passion leads to the glory of the Resurrection. By allowing his disciples to witness his own glorious Transfiguration, while he speaks prayerfully with Moses and Elijah about his passing… in Jerusalem, the Lord is helping the disciples to recognise, in his own sacrificial Death, the path to fullness of Life. He is teaching them, and us, to connect the shadow of the Cross, with the brilliance of heavenly glory.

And isn’t this connection between darkness and glory made especially clear when the three disciples find themselves engulfed by a shadowy cloud? It’s precisely out of the cloud’s terrifying darkness that God’s consoling and illuminating voice is heard saying, This is my Son, the Chosen One. Listen to him. And doesn’t this instruction prompt us to recall the challenging words that Jesus had addressed to his disciples just before going up the mountain? If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me (9:23). Just as reading and writing start with the ABCs, so too does following the Lord begin with learning to recognise the close connection between the cross we are called to carry everyday, and the glory of the Lord’s Dying and Rising. And as we keep learning to make this connection, transformation happens. As the second reading tells us, the Lord Jesus Christ… will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body.

But isn’t there something important that remains to be said? Just because we know our ABCs doesn’t mean we have to read every book ever printed, or write down every thought that happens to float into our minds. If that’s even possible. No, we need to choose what and when to read and write. Similarly, just because we recognise the Cross of Christ as the way that leads to life-giving transformation, doesn’t mean we have to carry all the crosses that burden the world. No, as followers of Christ, we’re expected to bear only the cross that’s actually meant for us. Which means we need to learn to recognise, or discern, the one that’s truly ours to bear. And to be humble enough to let the others go. Even if letting go may sometimes be as, or even more, painful. Just as it’s painful for the family of an addict to witness their beloved’s suffering, while refusing to enable the addiction… So recognition, discernment and transformation… Aren’t these among the graces we fervently desire in this beautiful season of Lent? And by desiring them, aren’t we imitating the psalmist, in seeking the face of the Lord in the land of the living?

Sisters and brothers, in addition to teaching us the precious ABCs of our faith, how might the Lord be uncovering to us the glory of his scarred yet beautiful face this Lent?