Gospel of the Second Sunday of Lent – God Offers Us Struggle and Glory

I – We are Convoked “ad maiora”

In forming man in His image and likeness (cf. Gn 1: 26), God destined him to occupy an elevated position in creation, inferior only to that of the Angels. The human being, as the only creature gifted with intelligence in the entire material universe, possesses a notable superiority over the others, in addition to the capacity to dominate them, transform them and use them wisely, in this way perfecting the work of the Creator. He is the protagonist of history, as Scripture points out: “And by Thy wisdom hast formed man, to have dominion over the creatures Thou hast made” (Wis 9: 2). Besides this prerogative in the natural order, there is another privilege which confers upon him the loftiest dignity: divine filiation, conceded by Baptism. Upon receiving this Sacrament, the person becomes an adoptive child of God, a participant of the divine nature, a member of Christ, co-heir with Him and a temple of the Most Blessed Trinity.

On account of original sin and our condition of trial, these benefits of nature and grace prepare us for the moments when we must show our fidelity to God, especially when temptations, tragedies and difficulties befall us. If we nourish a mistaken—perhaps subconscious—desire to transform earthly glory or perceptible spiritual delight into something continuous in our lives, we adhere to the notion that the perfect life is one of stability within consolation, devoid of the least suffering. By His divine example, Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us that the path to happiness differs from that suggested by human criteria. We will only encounter perfect joy when we embrace sanctity, which implies travelling the narrow path and carrying the Cross, by which one achieves light.

This can, reasonably, lead to asking if it is only through struggle—by confronting a series of obstacles for the glory of God—that we find the meaning of life, or if it is possible to experience complete fruition by following the urge of our appetites. The harmonious combination of readings of the Liturgy of the second Sunday of Lent supplies the answer, focussing on the attainment of eternal blessedness through trial, spiritual combat and suffering.

The promise of a glorious future

The first reading recounts the historic incident in which God sealed a covenant with Abraham, and makes him great promises. As the sun was going down in the long-ago lands of Canaan, where he had pitched his tent, the patriarch had already retired when the Lord brought him outside to contemplate the firmament. It was limpid, like a mantle brightened by an infinitude of stars (cf. Gn 15: 5-12; 17-18). Everything leads us to believe that he was shown a wonderful scene, configured by the Divine Artist to frame one of the most beautiful communications of salvation history. It was the moment in which God acknowledged Abraham’s righteousness and deemed him worthy of receiving His salvific plan, to receive the Faith which would be transmitted to all of humanity. In a poetic dialogue, He promised the elderly man that which human possibilities had denied him: descendants, land and blessing.

Although Abraham had conserved, over the decades, the desire of possessing heirs and ending the uncertainties of nomadic life, it was only after a long wait that God fulfilled these aspirations with unimaginable exuberance. The patriarch accepted and believed in the promise despite adverse appearances: “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them… So shall your descendants be” (Gn 15: 5). By this, he merited a recompense much greater than what he expected or could fathom. “God, in His manner of promising, in His certainty of never deceiving, reveals His unique grandeur: ‘God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should repent’ (Nm 23: 19). For Him, to promise is to already give, but first He gives the faith that enables the hope that the gift will come, making the receiver, through this grace, capable of giving thanks (cf. Rom 2: 20) and of acknowledging the heart of the donor in the gift.” ¹

God requires offerings of chosen souls

From that night onward, God’s conduct with Abraham bore a new characteristic: while sustaining him with the promise, He began eliciting from him constant proofs of reciprocity and dedication, with the purpose of proving him, and moulding his existence around the covenant: “Walk before me, and be blameless” (Gn 17: 1). In a perplexing paradox, many years would elapse before the birth of Isaac (cf. Gn 21: 5), and only the fourth generation of the descendants of Abraham would return to occupy the Promised Land (cf. Gn 15: 16). Yet, faced with this apparent contradiction, until he became a centenarian, he firmly believed that God’s promise was more truthful than even the obtainment of the awaited fruits: “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God” (Rom 4: 20). This deep-seated devotedness was indispensable so that the Chosen People would have at their foundation an act of faith so excellent as to make it worthy, in the person of its patriarch, of the predestination for which it was destined.

The circumstance marking the highpoint of the period of Abraham’s trial was the offering of Isaac, for matured faith should be “purified by the trial of the sacrifice.” ² However, other offerings preceded it, one of them having occurred soon after the incident recalled above. Respecting the customs of those times, God told Abraham to make an offering of diverse animals cutting them in two, laying each half over against the other. Verse eleven denotes an important aspect of this passage and today’s liturgical readings as a whole: “And when birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abraham drove them away” (Gn 15: 11). The birds of prey, avid to snatch the offerings, symbolize the struggles demanded by his fidelity to the covenant. The infernal enemy promptly unleashes temptations and obstacles against anyone who embarks on the path of justice. It is necessary to fight the enemy to inhibit him from robbing the merit of our good works. Struggle became a constant in the trajectory of the people of Israel, an essential element of the episodes of Sacred History, in which not a single victory is obtained without a fight. God was pleased with Abraham’s firmness; He made a flaming torch pass through the middle of his offering—a symbol, in the Old Testament, of His presence³—signalling that He had accepted it. This combat, as will be seen, extends also to the New Testament and requires of Christians a vigilance which “they should practice day after day in the fight against the evil one; it demands of the disciple continual prayer and alertness.” ⁴

The combat of the Apostle against false converts

The second reading (cf. Phil 3: 17-21; 4: 1) draws from an important segment of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians. In that community, some recently converted Jews, still preserved connections to the traditions and concepts of the old cult, spreading erroneous doctrines with the objective of doing what we could qualify as an anti-pauline pseudo-apostolate. While St. Paul preached the Redeemer, the Good News, the Sacraments and the marvels of grace, the Judaists wanted mosaic customs to prevail at all cost. “They concern themselves with exercising their enmity against the Cross of Christ, affirming that no one can be saved except through legal observances, thus reducing to nothing the power ‘of the Cross of Christ.’” ⁵ One of the motives that prompted the Apostle to write this letter was the necessity of warning against this nefarious current, an intention that surfaces clearly in the verses considered today: “Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so live as you have an example in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now I tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the Cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things” (Phil 3: 17-19).

Challenged with the harmful teachings of the Judaists, St. Paul undauntedly sets himself as an example for those whom he had brought to the Saviour, admonishing them, with authority, for following others who were not called to be models in the practice of the Faith. His words denote the suffering and indignation caused by the controversy, as he writes to them in tears. This reaction is warranted in one of such a fiery temperament, impeded by circumstances from intervening with desired effectiveness, and who clearly perceives that the astuteness of the wicked puts the perseverance of the good at risk.

Because of this, he also boldly denounces the hypocrites who, out of esteem for ancient traditions, insist upon a merely exterior and already defunct cult, scorning the life of grace. It is noteworthy that in pointing out the divinization of the belly that they championed, St. Paul does not refer to the vice of gluttony, but to their attachment to Mosaic Law and the attendant pharisaic customs. He affirms that their god is the belly because the religious practice of these Judaists controlled everything that could be ingested, and glorified that which is shameful, by upholding the primacy of circumcision—formerly a heralding sign of faith in the Passion of Christ but by that time an abolished prescription. In practicing such customs with exaggerated rigour, they felt exonerated from purifying their interior, although it was so corrupt. St. Paul’s language is extremely daring; it challenges those who boasted of their old wineskins, to the point of causing them to rend their garments and of his becoming, for them, deserving of hatred unto death.

The hope of eternal life

“But our commonwealth is in Heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables Him even to subject all things to Himself” (Phil 3: 20-21). After inveighing against deviations disseminated with such shrewdness, denouncing the malice of the false converts, St. Paul offers a veritable synthesis of today’s Liturgy by speaking of the calling of the baptized to be citizens of Heaven. Here we have an unsurpassable realization of God’s promise, perhaps not even foreseen by Abraham: numerous descendants, land and blessing. These goods are ephemeral if compared to the eternal blessedness and to the glorious body which, being freed of the requirements of mortal nature, will assume the characteristics of glory. The Apostle endeavours to raise the sights of that community to the reward that awaits it, certain that, instilling hope of greater goods would create conditions for it to avoid contamination from the influence of the perverse.

With this intention he establishes the doctrine of the glorious bodies, a matter amply covered in his writings. He speaks of our body, humiliated by the effects of original sin, and points to the transformation which it will undergo when it resurrects and is reunited to the soul which is in the beatific vision, having acquired the plenitude of liberty and the impossibility of sinning and being set free from the inclination toward evil. This state of maximum spiritual perfection is, effectively, the basis for the renovation of our material being, as St. Thomas teaches: “From the natural relationship which is between the soul and the body, glory flows into the body from the soul’s glory.” ⁶ In becoming divinized, the soul no longer adapts to a suffering body, it having attained the final stage of the life of grace which is glory.

The beginning of supernatural life is granted to us by faith, which leads us to believe in that which we do not see, and by hope, which leads us to desire what we do not yet possess, but that one day we will receive. Now, glory is the fulfilment of the object of faith and the attainment of the object of hope, according to Fr. ­Garrigou-Lagrange, “If God Himself, Who is the infinite Good, were immediately and clearly manifested to us face to face we could not but love Him. He would entirely fill our affective capacity, which would be drawn irresistibly toward Him. It could not find any motive to turn from Him, or even to suspend its act of love. This is the reason why one who sees God face to face cannot sin. […] Only God, seen face to face, can invincibly captivate our will.” ⁷

In this situation the body becomes glorious by accompanying the soul, for it cannot remain inferior to its felicity, besides assuming the four characteristics enunciated by the Angelic Doctor: clarity, impassibility, agility and subtlety. ⁸ The first of them reflects upon the body the light of the beatific vision, rendering it radiant by virtue of the clarity which the body enjoys. Impassibility pertains to immortality and the exemption from pain, for the body becomes the object of well-being alone, as the fruit of its perfect submission to the soul: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more” (Rv 21: 4). Finally, agility and subtlety confirm the supremacy of the spirit over matter, once the bodies of the saints will no longer be subject to present contingencies or to the effects imposed by other bodies. They will be able to move with all swiftness and penetrate obstacles with perfect ease. ⁹

St. Augustine affirms that “nature, wounded by sin, generates citizens of the earthly city, and grace, which liberates from sin, generates citizens of the heavenly city.” ¹⁰ The second reading equally confirms the indispensability of grace in the attainment of eternal life and is centred—as is the first—on the need of keeping our eye on Heaven, with full trust in the fulfilment of God’s promises. Both passages are an appropriate preamble for the Gospel message, whose boundless grandeur we will now consider.

II – Promise, Faith and Struggle

Throughout the whole public life of Our Lord, until this Gospel episode, the Apostles had become accustomed to witnessing Christ’s astounding miracles. These prodigies clearly attested to His divinity; ¹¹ His omnipotence would be manifested with yet greater splendour with the institution of the Eucharist. He had concomitantly revealed His impending Passion, which would bring an oppressive trial. After receiving Communion for the first time, the Apostles would see Him arrested, judged, scourged, crowned with thorns, shouldering the Cross and being crucified. How could the closest followers of the Divine Master, witnesses of these sufferings, continue believing in the Resurrection on the third day? What would He, in His infinite wisdom, do to keep alight the faith of the Twelve through the torments that were approaching on the horizon?

In His Body Jesus reveals the glory of His Soul

In order to prepare them for what would come, Our Lord called His three closest Apostles and took them to Mount Tabor. Afterwards, they would fortify the others by recounting what they had witnessed.

Although prayer occupied a primary place in the Master’s life, this was not His only objective in ascending the mountain. He primarily intended to show who He really was, according to Maldonado: “Christ would frequently go up the mountains to pray, where the solitude is greater and the view of the sky unhindered. However, it must not be inferred from Luke’s words that Christ ascended only with the intention of praying, but that, according to His custom of praying about arduous questions, He willed to do so this time before manifesting His glory. […] Let us also bear in mind that normally God’s glory is manifested not in the valleys but from the mountain tops, which are closer to Heaven and outermost from earth.” ¹²

This exteriorization of divine glory is a phenomenon that reveals the true state of Jesus’ soul, which, created in the beatific vision, had the supreme degree of capital grace from the first moment of the Incarnation; it is so named because He is the Head of the Mystical Body and the font of grace from which the Church lives. ¹³ His soul was in continual contemplation of God face to face¹⁴ and this is why it would have been normal for His body to habitually be in the glorious state, as a mirror of the beatitude of His spirit, just as it was manifested on Tabor, before St. Peter and the sons of Zebedee. ¹⁵ It was for love of us that Our Lord wished to be clothed with the characteristics of the suffering body to operate the Redemption. ¹⁶ So, then, from a certain angle, the verb transfigure does not define precisely what happened, for, actually, Christ effected the cessation of the subfigure in which He dwelt.

At other moments of His public life, we may suppose that He assumed only some attributes of the glorious body, as, for example, when He passed through the midst of those who wanted to throw Him from the brow of a hill in Nazareth or when He walked upon the Sea of Galilee. ¹⁷

Moses and Elijah ratify the Passion

Participating in the glory of Christ were the two exponents of the Chosen People: Moses and Elijah, the highest representatives of the Law and of the prophets. They were chosen because “Neither can the Law exist without the Word, nor could any prophet have predicted something that did not refer to the Son of God.” ¹⁸ Both not only ratify that Jesus is the Messiah, but also give the weight of their testimony to the announcements of the Passion. They conversed with Him about His death and, all the while, the three were surrounded in glory, which reveals the final end: resurrection and the glorious body. “The conversation of Jesus with Moses and Elijah treats precisely of the torments which Christ will soon undergo in Jerusalem. The Transfiguration, therefore, is the consecration of Jesus for the Cross and for death.” ¹⁹ In a harmonious junction, conceivable only by the intelligence of God, pain and glory merge in this episode, as St. Leo the Great states: “It was necessary that the Apostles hold in their hearts a clear notion of this vigorous and blessed fortitude, and that they not tremble before the rudeness of the cross that they would have to carry. It was necessary that they be not ashamed of the suffering of Christ, nor consider humiliating for Him the patience with which He should undergo the rigours of His Passion, without losing the glory of His power.” ²⁰

The illusion of a life without effort

Overtaken by tiredness—a surprising detail—the three witnesses lay asleep at the beginning of the divine manifestation. This fatigue is symbolic, for every time that the cross, effort and sacrifice are shown to us we are overcome by tedium, because of our weak human nature. This also happened, later, in the Garden of Olives, when the three yielded to lethargy when the Passion was imminent, leaving Our Lord to face His torments alone (cf. Mt 26: 40). Awakened suddenly, still dazed with sleep and surprised by the brightness surrounding them, they are so dumbfounded that even St. Peter does not give a proportionate response to the occurrence. Actually his words reveal a deep-rooted, harmful, while perhaps not fully conscious tendency. In the grip of wonder, he immediately wishes to take advantage of the situation, expressing the desire to live uninterruptedly under the influx of the glory of the Master. He saw the attainment of happiness in the licit appropriation of this pleasure, and if he did not ask to set up three booths when the Lord announced the Passion, he does not hesitate to do so at this moment. Peter imagines that he has reached the end of the good fight, when there is yet a long way to be travelled. He perhaps, saw in the presence of the two impressive personages, Moses and Elijah, how easy it would be to endow the Jewish people with supremacy over all the other nations on earth. The leader of the Church was yet to learn that before receiving the fruits of the promise it is necessary to travel the path that leads to them, according to the Redeemer’s example.

The Father convokes us to the fight

The voice of the Father came out of the cloud, commanding them to listen to His well beloved Son. What does He order them to hear? Precisely the predictions that they long to forget. Our Lord had declared that He would be delivered into the hands of the priests, the scribes and the Pharisees, and that He would suffer and be slain and resurrect on the third day (cf. Mt 16: 21; Lk 9: 22). They shirked these thoughts, conditioned by a human vision of Christ. Romano Guardini states: “When we read the Gospels, we feel that during the lifetime of the Master, the disciples did not grasp what was at stake. Jesus did not have a group of men who truly understood Him, who saw who He was or realized what He wanted. Circumstances continually arise that show us that He was alone in their midst. […] We see them caught up in common messianic considerations right up to the Ascension […], they even ask, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel’(Acts 1: 6)?” ²¹ In ordering them to heed the Son in everything, the Father urges them to consider the arduous reality of the Cross in order to follow His Chosen One according to how He is, and not how they wish Him to be.

When the prodigious vision had ended, Jesus remained in prayer the whole night and descended the following day, accompanied by the three Apostles. They kept silence on the way back, which reveals the impact that the Transfiguration caused; anything they could say about what they had seen would fall short. We can recall that as soon as they returned, they encountered a possessed boy, over whom Jesus performed an exorcism which sparked a strong reaction (cf. Mt 17: 14-20; Mk 9: 14-29; Lk 9: 37-42). After that deep mystical experience, Our Lord took up His activities of apostolate again, showing the deeper meaning of the occurrence. In fact, this grace of such extraordinary scope was a preparation for future battles.

III – Consolations Sustain us on the Course toward Final Victory

This Sunday’s Liturgy—in recalling the promise made to Abraham, the words of St. Paul and the scene of the Transfiguration—teaches us that the mystical graces we receive during the course of the spiritual life are not given with the objective of establishing an enjoyable earthly existence, in which we would like to set up a booth to remain in static contemplation. These graces are granted so that we may find strength to confront the challenges of life with an eye to the end for which we were called. In fact, the mystical way is a foretaste of eternal blessedness and not a relishing of earthly life. Happiness in this world stems from the struggle against the evil being waged inside and outside of us and, especially, from fighting for God’s glory; these consolations are given to us to nourish the virtue of hope.

Underlining the importance of these graces, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira affirms that they “are a type of foretaste of the beatific vision in Heaven, and effectively open our souls to the understanding of the supernatural and the marvellous; to the desire for all that is great, for great feats, great exploits.” ²² Therefore, let us hearken to the divine manifestations in our life, casting off all sleepiness that impedes us from perceiving them. And let us grow in the certainty that after the fleeting struggles of earthly life what awaits us is the joy of an eternal relationship with God, for which we were created. In Heaven it will not be necessary to set up booths. Our dwelling is prepared by the Divine Master to give eternal endurance to the joys of His splendorous Transfiguration! ◊

Notes

¹ RAMLOT, OP, Marie-Léon; GUILLET, SJ, Jacques. Promesas. In: LÉON-DUFOUR, SJ, Xavier (Org.). Vocabulario de Teología bíblica. Barcelona: Herder, 1996, p.731.

² Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1819.

{NF}3 Cf. COLUNGA, OP, Alberto; GARCÍA CORDERO, OP, Maximiliano. Biblia Comentada, vol. I: Pentateuco. Madrid: BAC, 1960, p.192.

⁴MOLLAT, SJ, Donatien. Velar. In: LÉON-DUFOUR, op. cit., p.925.

⁵ ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. Epistolam Sancti Pauli Apostoli ad Philippenses expositio, c.III, lect.3.

⁶ ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. Summa Theologiae, III, q.14, a.1, ad 2.

⁷ GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE, OP, Réginald. L’Éternelle Vie et la Profondeur de l’Âme. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1953, p.25.

⁸ Cf. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. In Symbolum Apostolorum, art. 11.

⁹ Cf. GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE, op. cit., p.332-333.

¹⁰ ST. AUGUSTINE. De Civitate Dei, L.XV, c.2. In: Obras, vol. XVI-XVII. Madrid: BAC, 1958, p.998.

¹¹ Cf. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. Summa Theologiae, III, q.43, a.4.

¹² MALDONADO, SJ, Juan de. Comentarios a los Cuatro Evangelios, vol. I: Evangelio de San Mateo. Madrid: BAC, 1950, p.607-608.

¹³ Cf. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. Summa Theologiae, III, q.8, a.1.

¹⁴ Cf. Idem, q.9, a.2.

¹⁵ Cf. Idem, q.45, a.2.

¹⁶ Cf. Idem, q.14, a.1, ad 2.

¹⁷ Cf. Idem, q.45, a.1, ad 3.

¹⁸ ST. AMBROSE. Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam, L.VII, n.10. In: Obras, vol. I. Madrid: BAC, 1966, p.350.

¹⁹ FILLION, Louis-Claude. Vida de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo, vol. II: Vida pública. Madrid: Rialp, 2000, p.286.

²⁰ ST. LEO THE GREAT. Hom. Sabb. ante II Dom. Quadr. Sur la Transfiguration, hom.38 [LI], n.2. In: Sermons, vol. III. Paris: Du Cerf, 1961, p.16.

²¹ GUARDINI, Romano. O Senhor. Lisbon: Agir, 1964, p.70-71.

²² CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. Speech. São Paulo, Nov 19, 1989.