Greetings, Church fans! This one is one of Deacon Mick’s best. As always, you can pick up the whole Mass on the livestream on our Facebook page or just the homily on our YouTube Channel.
On this 2nd Sunday of Lent,
and every 2nd Sunday of Lent,
the Gospel reading recounts the Transfiguration of Jesus.
Someone once called the particular Sunday
the “Sunday of the three mountains.”
We have Abraham on Mt. Moriah; in the 1st reading
the redeeming Christ on Mt. Calvary; in the 2nd
and the Transfigured Christ on Mt. Tabor; in the gospel.
We are invited to climb these mountains during Lent.
Now – we live in Alaska
and mountain climbing is part of our nature.
Almost everyone has at least climbed up Flattop.
Climbing a mountain is hard but
when we reach the top,
we see things in a different way.
The air is cleaner, the light is clearer,
we seem closer to God
and we are changed by the effort.
SO – Let’s take a moment and look at these three mountains.
First, there is Mt. Moriah.
In his old age,
Abraham was called by God to
leave the people of the Chaldeans
and go to a place God intended for him.
Abraham complied with the will of God.
Several years ago,
some archeological excavations
in the area of the Chaldeans homeland –
revealed the awful discovery that
the Chaldeans were involved in child sacrifice.
In the light of this,
Abraham’s climbing Mt. Moriah to sacrifice his son
loses some of its puzzlement.
God called him up the mountain
to teach him in a very dramatic way that
human sacrifice would never be a part
of fidelity to the God of life.
At the top of Mt. Moriah,
Abraham finally and completely
left all the old gods of the Chaldeans behind.
We are called during Lent
to abandon the worship of the gods of our culture
(you know the gods of politics, of immoral entertainment,
of secular and cultural permissiveness and others that
so directly impact our lives and values)
and to discover again our fidelity to the one true God.
The call to Mt. Moriah is a call of service, dedication and commitment
to the true God alone.
In the second reading,
St. Paul speaks about Christ’s love for us
shown on Mt. Calvary.
During Lent,
we are called to embrace more fully
the love of Jesus Christ
and see him as our Savior.
Several years ago,
the Holy See discussed the impact of “Moral Modernism”
and its contrast with Christianity.
One of the points discussed was that
“Moral Modernism” is a kind of atmosphere that
surrounds us and influences our thinking.
It focuses on personal needs
and personal desires
and personal wants.
This moral modernism thinking
does not see God as a personal being
but as an undefined, impersonal energy to be harnessed and used.
It’s concept sees us as somehow saving ourselves through
techniques of self-fulfillment, self-realization,
and self-redemption rather than true
salvation coming from the passion, death
and resurrection of Christ.
It confuses psychology and spirituality.
In moral modernism
we aren’t encountering the living God
but relying on our personal inner interpretations
of right and wrong for salvation.
Modern moralism sees sin as imperfection
and so we get to go through a personal life
recycling until we get it right
rather than seeing our life as a
unique and sacred drama of sin and grace,
our one time journey back to God.
To climb the mountain of Calvary
is to leave this self-absorption,
self-interpretation of morality behind
and see Jesus Christ alone,
as the way, the truth,
and the life the comes to each of us
from His saving death and resurrection.
The call to Mt. Calvary
is to embrace the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ
as our key to eternal life.
Finally, there is Mt. Tabor,
the mountain of the Transfiguration
that revealed something stupendous to the apostles.
Now, we can limit our vision and our hope to this world
as the apostles did, but
Jesus took them up a high mountain.
Once there,
He started to change, first his clothing, then He himself.
Then Elijah and Moses appeared.
The apostles didn’t know what to say,
they were taken by surprise.
Then the cloud came and the voice,
“This is my beloved son.”
Suddenly everything was over just as suddenly as it began.
Jesus was standing there
just as they had seen him before.
But now,
they knew what the future held not only for Jesus
but also for them.
Though they didn’t fully understand it all,
they looked at themselves
and each other
and they realized there was more to their future
then they could imagine.
They knew that one day they too would shine.
This world is not all there is for us.
The call of Mt. Tabor to them
and to us
is to trust in the glory that awaits us.
Three mountains — Mt. Moriah; Mt. Calvary; Mt. Tabor.
The question becomes – Which one do you need to climb this Lent?
Like Abraham,
do you need to climb Mt. Moriah
to finally leave some old gods behind
and finally serve the one true God?
OR Do you need to climb Mt. Calvary
and realize that salvation comes
only through Jesus Christ
and not from personal self-serving moral interpretations
but looking to Christ
as our key to eternal life?
OR Do you need to climb Mt. Tabor
and appreciate the glory of Christ that
will one day be ours and that
our faithful Christian Life here
is only the beginning of a glorious future with Christ?
Which one do you personally need to climb?
Climb any one;
you will find cleaner air, cleaner light,
You will come closer to God
and be deeply changed.
Mt. Moriah — Leaving behind the gods of the past.
Mt. Calvary — embracing Christ as the only Savior.
Mt. Tabor — trusting the glory that will be ours in Christ.
My friends – Which mountain do you need to climb this Lent?