In Imitation of Christ

Last week, as happens every year on the First Sunday of Lent, our Gospel was an account of Jesus’ 40 days fasting in the desert at the very beginning of his ministry, where he is tempted by the devil but, unlike Adam and Eve, does not succumb to that temptation. This is a very fitting Gospel for the first Sunday Mass after the beginning of Lent: our annual period of 40 days of penance during which we pray, fast and give alms in order to turn back to God and prepare ourselves for our annual celebration of the Paschal Mystery: Christ’s death and resurrection.

Similarly, the Second Sunday of Lent presents the same event every year: the Transfiguration. Christ takes only his closest Apostles with him: Peter, James and John: the Apostle appointed to lead the rest of the Apostles after his death, the Apostle who would be the first of the Apostles to bear witness to him through martyrdom, and the Apostle who is referred to as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” in the Gospel of John. They go up a high mountain, traditionally identified as Mount Tabor, a single, isolated mountain 1,886 ft high, rising high above its surroundings in Galilee. On the mountain, Jesus’ glory is revealed to Peter, James and John: his face shines like the sun, and his clothes become white as light. Elijah and Moses, the two Old Testament figures who saw God on one of the great mountains of the Old Testament: Mt Sinai, appear next to Jesus, and converse with Him. A bright cloud casts a shadow over the whole group, and a voice says “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” The three Apostles fall prostrate in adoration: their eyes downcast, afraid of the glory revealed to them. By the time the Apostles raise their eyes, at Jesus’ invitation, only Jesus is left, and they go back down the mountain. He then instructs them not to tell anyone about it “until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

At first glance, the story seems more fitting for an Easter Gospel: an anticipation of the glory that would be fully revealed at the resurrection. However, it has been read during Lent since at least the time of St. Leo the Great in the fifth century. It seems equally out of place in the Gospel narratives, surrounded by stories of Jesus going around Galilee, teaching and performing miracles, situated just before he travels to Jerusalem. The Transfiguration forms the end of a brief interruption in the pattern of sermons, parables and healings that starts with a question Jesus asks his disciples. On the road, in the district of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his disciples who He is, and Peter answers: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter confesses his faith in Jesus as the Messiah. This is immediately followed by Jesus telling the disciples about his death, Peter rebuking Jesus, and Jesus telling Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!.” He then applies that lesson to his disciples: all who come after Him must take up their cross, deny themselves and follow him. The next event in the Gospel narratives is six days later, when Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him up a high mountain, and is transfigured before them.

If we think of the Gospels from the perspective of a narrative, this section, from Peter’s declaration of faith through the Transfiguration, forms a key turning point. Peter, the leader of the 12 Apostles, has recognized and believed in Jesus as the Messiah, as the Christ, the anointed of God sent to free Israel. However, he still needs some preparation so that he can truly understand the full nature of Jesus Christ and his mission: so that he can understand that the Messiah, the son of Man, and son of God, is also the Word made flesh, the Son of the Father, sent not just to free Israel, but to free all of humanity from slavery to sin. This preparation begins immediately after the proclamation of faith, with teaching about his death. He then invites the disciples to imitate him: to take up their cross and deny themselves. At this point he shows his glory to Peter, James and John. He points them to something they are not ready to understand at the moment but that will help make sense of the resurrection they will witness in Jerusalem and proclaim to the whole world: the glorious resurrection of the body belonging to God’s only Son, not the reanimation of a corpse. They see the glory hidden behind Jesus’ appearance, a glory that will be shared by Peter, James, John and all those in communion with Christ at the resurrection of the dead, which we will profess that we look forward to in a moment, during the Creed.

Soon after this, a couple chapters later in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus will enter Jerusalem triumphantly, as the Christ, the Messiah. At the end of that week, he will be crucified, die, and be buried. Three days later, he will rise from the dead, again appearing in glory before those who followed him. In this context, we can see why the Transfiguration is a fitting Gospel for Lent, and a good Gospel to pair with the 40 days Jesus spends in the desert. During Lent, we imitate Jesus’ 40 days in the desert. Our penance imitates Christ’s preparation for his mission. However, we also imitate Peter, James and John following Jesus up a high mountain, and seeing him in glory. We also take the time to recognize Jesus’ glory as the Son of God so that we can be prepared to truly recognize his triumph over sin and death on Easter. Both of these can build on each other, and for a good Lent, a good preparation for Easter, must build on each other. Our self-denial, made possible by grace, helps us to grow in perfection, which allows us to see the hidden glory behind how Christ appears to us. It also works the other way: through grace, we see a glimpse of Christ’s glory, and this requires us to pursue a fuller participation in Christ’s life by Penance and self-denial.

I think it may be helpful at this time to comment a bit on where we can look to find this glory, where we can see the face of Christ, through which we see the face of God. One place is in our neighbors: in other people created in the image of God, who are all called to enter fully into the life of Christ, and into His glory. Another is in prayer, through which we reach out to God and conform ourselves and all our actions more fully to Him.

However, the most essential place where we can look to find Christ’s glory, is in what the fathers of Vatican II called the source and summit of the Church’s activity: the Liturgy: the miraculous event we are all witnessing right now in this Church. Through this solemn celebration, the Paschal mystery is made present to us: we participate in Christ’s offering of Himself for our sins, the offering that destroys death and brings life and immortality to light, as St. Paul says. At the consecration, the bread and wine are miraculously transformed, their substance is changed: they are transubstantiated, into the body and blood of Christ. If we receive communion worthily, we take in the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, transforming ourselves into a part of the living Body of Christ, the Church. And yet, like Jesus throughout most of his earthly ministry, this glory, a glory before which we can do nothing but kneel and prostrate ourselves in adoration, is hidden. We usually sense only the accidents that remain: the bead and the wine. The glory of Christ is hidden behind the sometimes mediocre performance of a bumbling, absent-minded Priest, or the thousand and one preoccupations and concerns we have constantly banging around our heads. But, in spite of this, the glory is there: Christ is here. Recognizing that, and seeing Him, is one of the most important aims of Lent. Seeing a glimpse of His glory now, we will be prepared to more fully experience his death and resurrection during the Triduum.