2nd Sunday of Lent 2007

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
2nd Sunday in Lent
March 4, 2007

Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep.

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen

If you look at the cover of today’s bulletin, there is a very detailed image of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove. Below the Dove, the Holy Spirit, is God the Father, who is bearing His Son in His arms, the Crucified Christ and the One Who was pierced for our sins. This is a depiction of the “Trinity” and one you don’t see very often. Above the left shoulder of God the Father you see and angel holding what appears to be a column or pillar; that is the pillar to which Christ was bound when He was scourged. Beneath that angel is another angel holding a crown of thorns and on the other side of the Holy Spirit you see and angel embracing the cross. Below that angel is another angel holding something. If your eyes are not perfect you might not be able to tell what it is but he is holding the INRI, the sign above the crucified Christ, which is an abbreviation of the Latin, which means, “Jesus the Nazarean, King of the Jews.”

View the picture HERE

These are some of the implements of the crucifixion. Pope Benedict has said that during Lent 2007, the Church should contemplate Jesus Crucified. He used the line from St. John’s Gospel in his Lenten Message for 2007,

“They shall look on Him whom they have pierced”

Click HERE for Words of the Holy Father, Lenten Stations, Lenten Music, Calendar of Celebrations, and Live.

The One Who was pierced is Jesus and that is why the Sunday before Ask Wednesday we had the bulletin cover depicting Jesus at Calvary and then last week’s bulletin depicted the Temptation of Christ. Today we are continuing to study the One Who was pierced for your and my sins.

Look at today’s Gospel in your bulletin. Half way down the page you see “Preface of the Transfiguration of the Lord”. Right in the middle you see the official 1973 ICEL translation, which is used at Mass is English. Look at the second paragraph.

On Your holy mountain, He revealed Himself in glory in the presence of His Disciples.

He’d already prepared them for His approaching death and He wanted to teach them through the Law and the Prophets that the promised Christ had to first suffer and so come to the glory of His Resurrection. So there in a nutshell, we have in the Preface, which is the prayer that comes before the Sanctus, the meaning of this Gospel. Why is it placed at the 2nd Sunday of Lent? It is to teach us that through the Law and the Prophets that the Messiah, Jesus Christ had to first suffer to come to the glory of His Resurrection. Jesus was not surprised or walking through the streets of Jerusalem whistling when they ambushed him and crucified Him. It was foretold in the Old Testament through the Law and the Prophets.

Two figures represent the Law and the Prophets in this Gospel. Moses received the Law written by the Finger of God, and so Moses represents the Law of God. The greatest of the Prophets, which is Elijah, represents the Prophets. The Old Testament very clearly tells us that the Messiah, the One that God promised to send to save us from our sins, would have to suffer and die. If you read the New Testament on a regular basis, Jesus often quotes an Old Testament Book, the Prophet Isaiah. In fact of all the books of the Old Testament, the Prophet Isaiah is the one that Jesus quotes most often. If you have time later this evening, open your Bible to the Old Testament and look up the Prophet Isaiah. Go about half way through and you start to hear about the suffering servant of Yahweh, who is God. The suffering servant is the Messiah. You will read these lines in Isaiah.

”He was silent and opened not His mouth” OR “Ours were the offenses He bore”

The Prophet Isaiah will tell you a lot about the suffering the Messiah would have to endure before His Resurrection. If you look at the cover of the bulletin, under the picture it says, “The Glory of the Transfiguration Prepares Us for the Scandal of Good Friday.” Now watch this….I just turned the page back and as easily as I did that, Christ pulls back the veil and shows Peter, James and John just a small part of His glory. Of course, we can see how impressed, so incredibly impressed, transfixed, they were asleep, right? Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep. Peter, James, John, and the other nine had been personally hand picked by Jesus, the Son of God, to be His foundation stones…twelve columns. These three are on the mountain of the Transfiguration sawing logs. Jesus’ clothes had been changed to be brilliantly white and His face is dazzling and brilliant and they are asleep. I am so glad that the Gospel shows us Peter, James, and John as they really are. I mean, if they had been three straight “A” Apostles, you and I would always feel incredibly inferior.

So here are Peter, James and John on this mountain snoring while Christ is in all His glory and there is this little bit about Christ talking to Moses and Elijah, who’d been dead for hundreds of years and they are so entranced that they fall asleep. Right?

If you look above the Tabernacle you will see Jesus on the Cross and at the foot of the Cross, are His mother, Mary Magdalene and some other women on this side and on the other side you see St. John the Apostle. The scandal of Good Friday is that you see Jesus, Who is God, Who is the Messiah crucified, and you only see one Apostle. One Apostle, Judas, had committed suicide and the other ten were absent without leave. These were had picked by God! That is a scandal!

The Preface for this Mass tells us that Jesus was pulling back the veil to show them some of His Glory so that they would be carried over the scandal of the Cross. They would hold on, hope, and endure all of that, anticipating something greater coming on Easter Sunday. The scandal of the Cross is strong.

Now if you look at the cover of the bulletin, what the Preface is talking about, the Preface of the Transfiguration is about going from here to there, from this life to Heaven. Now, if you came to St. William’s from Dallas you had to cross the bridge across Lake Ray Hubbard. If you go from here back to Dallas you have to cross the same bridge. You can’t get from here to there or there to here without going over that bridge or another bridge. On the cover of the bulletin is the bridge from here to there and the bridge is Jesus Christ; the bridge is the Cross. If you think that you are somehow going to get “there” without crossing this “Bridge” and you are just going to scoot in the back door, it ain’t going to happen and you have evidentially fallen asleep and are napping. Right?

If I were on top of that mountain and in the Presence of Jesus and His Glory, I wouldn’t fall asleep; I would be attentive and have both eyes wide open. No I wouldn’t; I would probably do exactly what they did! Just to give an example; yesterday we had the First Saturday Mass at 10 am and then we prayed the 5 decades of the Rosary…five whole decades of the Rosary! Argh, I don’t know how I do it. Anyway while I was prayer the Rosary, somewhere along there, while praying a prayer that is very repetitive and kind of just puts you to sleep, right? I admit it, I admit it! Sometimes it is hard to pray the Rosary. The day before on the 2nd Friday of Lent, we were praying the Stations of the Cross in Church and we were all concentrating on the steps in the Passion of the Christ.

As Father says this he is slapping himself as if to wake himself up.

It is the same thing as with the Rosary; it takes an hour…zzzzzzzz

When we are praying we are often tempted to do exactly what Peter, James, and John did in this Gospel. Look at what happens when we come to Mass. I am forty-seven and over the years I am amazed at how many people come to Mass and take out their nail clippers and begin to trim their nails in Church. Where were you raised, on a farm? If you try that at home your wife will kick you outside. You go outside to trim your nails because you cannot guarantee where they are going to end up, right? But over the years I have heard people in Church clipping their nails as if there is no noise while they are clipping. No! I can hear it! I can hear nail clippers in a Cathedral! And, no one wants to come to Mass and have to sit on your nail-pairings. Let us just be honest.

“Well, I am in Church and I know that Jesus is in the Tabernacle, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, but I got here early so I might as well do something useful because I just hate it when I get to Mass early.”

So you get there early and there is nothing to do? I guess you might as well make use of the time. But over the years, and maybe you have done this, but while writing out your weekly donation check you notice that you haven’t balanced the check book in two weeks.

”Well, I have a few minutes here and Father is blabbing away so I will just balance this; it may take me a while but at least I am doing something productive.”

These are temptations just like the temptation to fall asleep; it is always right at our elbow. How many times have you been in Church and you were planning what you were going to do after Mass?

”Ok, when Father shuts up, we are going to go here and there; we need bread and milk….”

Right? How many times have you been in Church like an animal trapped and you just can’t wait to get away and you realize you and I are in the same category…Peter, James, and John. There is a lot of work that needs to be done on you and on me because we are in the Presence of the Living God. There two lamps here that are descending from the ceiling are called “Presence Lamps” and tell me that the “Reserved Sacrament, Holy Communion” is in the tabernacle; Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity is there! But of course you and I are just pulled to focus, but like St. Peter, so many things captivate us in the world, what can we do?

On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent Jesus tells us in Matthew 6, to pray, fast, and give to the poor and when we have finished to start over again. When we finish that we start over again and again throughout the 40 days of Lent. These will strengthen us. Remember what Jesus said to Sts. Peter, James, and John in the Garden of Gethsemane?

Stay awake and pray that you might not be put to the test. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

Don’t you know that after this Gospel these apostles said,

“Oh no, we’re fine.”

And then just like that, they went to sleep. Right? So, there is Jesus in His Agony and they are sawing logs on the Mt. of Olives.

Prayer, fasting, and giving to the poor help us to focus our attention to grow stronger spiritually during this graced moment called the 40 Days of Lent. Along with that we can add Confession and worthily receiving Holy Communion. Oh, anyone can receive Holy Communion in mortal sin but you know what happens? You commit another mortal sin. If my soul is not in a state of grace and I approach and receive Holy Communion, I have committed another mortal sin. I don’t care how you feel; I don’t care what you think; that is what Christ teaches through His Church. Prayer, fasting, giving to the poor, going to Confession and receiving Communion in the state of grace make us grow stronger right now and for the last twenty-four hours of our lives. It helps us to sharpen our attention so that we might notice when someone else is in need. For a moment during Lent, no longer am I the center of the universe, no longer are you the center of the universe but we actually do something very painful; we focus on somebody else, right?

A couple of weeks ago when I lost my voice and had to rest and rest, you would think that nobody had ever suffered as I suffered. Women, you know what this is like; you live with us men. When we get just a little sick or under the weather,

”Oh no! I don’t have a pulse!”

And the wife says,

“Honey, it is on the other side of the wrists.”

Of course, women you understand you have never suffered as we men suffer when we are sick. I know, you bring up that baby stuff all the time but really, we suffer. If you only knew! Well, you do know because you have to take care of us when we are sick. But what happens is, I focused on me and I am ashamed to say it. All of a sudden plans for the next 30 years flash before me and I lament,

” What happens if I die? What if I need a wheelchair?”

“Father, you only lost your voice, why do you need a wheelchair?”

Right? You can see where I am going with this. All of that attention is focused on me. We can focus very well. How about the wife who is just going to go from the hallway to the kitchen when the game is on?

”HEY, GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!! THE GAME!”

“I was just trying to get to the kitchen.”

Talk about focus. Or the woman at the checkout…

“I have been stalking this dress for months. I have been following it from full price all the way down to $9.95.”

Now that is attention. We can focus our attention when we want to, like a laser beam and when we don’t want to, we don’t. And, when it comes to God and prayer, yawn……………fasting and giving to the poor, well that is so boring. Then again, it shows you how we are just slumbering in the presence of God as if somehow it is like falling asleep on the beach and you are going to get a tan. It is like just falling asleep in the presence of God is going to rub off on you, but it isn’t! Prayer, fasting, and giving to the poor helps me right now to sharpen my focus on God and my brother or sister in need, as well as prepares me for the last twenty-four hours of my life.

I have had the experience with my dad, my Aunt Mary, and others near to me, of holding onto them and they are dying, they are slipping away.

“I am holding onto you! You are not going to die!”

Then there they go; the life just goes right out of them. I was notified today by a friend in Dallas, that her father passed away at 12:45 today. She said he really struggled. Now, if I am there next to a loved one I can help with my prayers, but the majority of the work belongs to the person who is dying. So, if you never give a thought to Lent, never give a thought to prayer, fasting, and giving to the poor, think about the last twenty-four hours of your life. It will come for you and me and nobody will be able to help you or me like we can help ourselves. The things that we do for Lent are not merely spiritual exercises that have no connection to anything. They help us now and carry over to help us in the end. People can make promises to be there for you and somehow they are not, so this is a way of preparing right now. If you somehow think that you are going to get from here to there without passing through the glory of the Cross, which is the suffering of the Cross, you are mistaken.

Now, if you would shake off the sleep that is coming over you about this time, look at that bulletin cover again. Do you notice something unusual about it? Look at the eyes of God the Father; where is He looking? He is looking right at you and me. In the First Reading today God was speaking to Abram, who changed his name to Abraham. God had given him a son, Isaac, in his old age and he loved Isaac. One day God told Abraham to take Isaac and go to Mt. Mariah and sacrifice him to god. Without grumbling and dragging his feet he did exactly what God asked of him. He took Isaac to the Mt. and there he was raising his hand ready to kill his son and the angel stopped him. God told Abraham that He would not allow him to kill his son.

Do you know that the tradition among Jews is that Mt. Mariah is coterminous, the same thing as Jerusalem. Hum. Do you remember Who was crucified just outside the wall of Jerusalem? Now if you look at that picture again you see God the Father, Who has sacrificed His only Son to make of Him a bridge for you and me to cross. We don’t understand suffering; we refuse to meditate on the figure of Christ, the One Who was pierced for our sins.

They shall look on Him Who they have pierced.”

What ends up happening reveals a lot about us. Last week, I believe in Leeds, England, a couple had a three-year old son and they have to be Catholic because of what you are going to hear come out of their mouth sounds just like many Catholics I know. One day their three-year old son stopped breathing and is rushed to the hospital. For thirty minutes he was not breathing as they worked on him. They called the parents in and told them that he had not breathed in thirty minutes and they hand him to the parents so they can say good-bye. The mother takes him in her arms and all of a sudden he starts coughing. The doctors took the baby back and the baby survived without any damage. What did the parents say?

“We are so LUCKY!”

Now doesn’t that sound like Catholics…lucky? What if that child had died?

“Why did God allow this to happen?”

If you look into the eyes of God the Father in this picture, what He wouldn’t allow Abraham to do to his son, God allowed to happen to His Son, and we refuse to look on him Who they have pierced? We are like animals caught in traps; we can’t wait to get away from prayer, fasting, and giving to the poor, or wanting to hurry and get out of that Confession line or not going to Communion because it is a waste of time. It is amazing that God puts up with us.

When we read this Gospel today we are so grateful for these Apostles because they tell us to get up and try again. Pray, fast and give to the poor, which will have consequences right now and in the last twenty-four hours of our lives.

Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep.

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen

Transcribed by: DMW