HOMILY FOR THE 2ND SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR C.

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

“LENT: A TIME TO DISFIGURE TO TRANSFIGURE AND TO CONFIGURE!”

By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide

·      Just like a joke, dear friends in Christ, our Lenten experience is more than a week spent. I hope we are making good use of this opportunity of grace and renewal, to tame our excesses, discipline our bodies and train them to be transfigured into the glorified body of Christ?

·      The Lenten season apart from being a time for fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, there is a special reminder that we are citizens of a special place, and all we do and say should be geared towards granting us admission into that special place. And this 40days of grace becomes special opportunity to prepare adequately.

·      When we disfigure our mortal bodies through bodily discipline and mortification, then our eyes will open enough to see the glory his love has for us. We will then be transfigured and configured to Christ. When we disfigure our earthly bodies, we will be wrapped in divine sweetness, such that what delights us is being in the presence of God and doing the will of God. When we disfigure ourselves, then our passions are conquered, and God is encountered.

·      Through the readings of today especially the first reading and the gospel reading, there is an invitation to leave our comfort zones, if we must encounter God. If our Lenten observance must make meaning, then we must be ready to make some sacrifices.

·      In the first reading, Abram was taken outside by the Lord (Gen. 15:5). The Lord pulled him out from the blinders that constantly blinds him from seeing the glory of the future which the Lord promises.  Just like any of us leaving our familiar terrain and comfort zone, Abram expressed some fears and needed some assurance that his movements and sacrifices will not be in vain “My Lord, how am I to know I shall inherit it?” (Gen. 15:8). Just like in the case of Abram, the Lord’s covenant with us is an everlasting covenant and he is always faithful to it. The question is: Are we ready to keep our side of the bargain? For all the sacrifices made either by leaving our comfort zones, disfiguring our sin figure to be transfigured and configured to Christ; will not be in vain, because our reward shall be as numerous as the stars of the heavens. The Lord calls us into a new covenant with him, especially during this Lenten season.

·      The Gospel reading also presents Jesus pulling Peter, James, and John away from their usual routine and comfort to a place of “Aloneness”, to a place of prayer and divine encounter – the mountain. This time it was Mount Tabor. No doubt that without prayers and a life free of distractions we cannot please God. We must not always go to the mountain, as in a high hill to pray, but we could see the church as our own mountain, spending time at the Blessed Sacrament chapel as our own mountain, our private altars in our homes as our own mountains. Anywhere we can find solitude and seek the face of God, becomes our place of encounter and transfiguration.

·      Dear friends, if our prayer during this Lenten season becomes intense and true, if mortal bodies are properly disfigured not in the sense of lacerating ourselves but in the sense of self-mortification and discipline, then we would have properly conquered ourselves, we would have tamed our excesses, we would have mastered ourselves, we would have taken control our divine destiny, all that we think we have lost by leaving our comfort zones, we shall now see as gain. Our mortal sinful bodies having been disfigured, are transfigured into the glorified body of Christ; so that we can remain configured to him.

·      No wonder, Peter having been disfigured is now transfigured, he longs to remain in the presence of God, he begged to remain in that trancelike encounter “Master, it is good that we are here, let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah” (Lk. 9:33).

·      When our mortal body is well disciplined during this Lenten season, it is transformed into glorified bodies. Our hunger and desires are turned towards the things of God. Like Saint Paul cautions in the second reading, we must desist from following the enemies of the cross of Christ who “make foods into their god and they are proudest of something they ought to think shameful” (Phil. 3:19). So that having been disfigured, he will then transfigure our wretched bodies into copies of his glorious body (Phil. 3:21).

·      Today dear friends in Christ, let us seize this Lenten season as an opportunity to disfigure ourselves for something more glorious, that the Lord will transfigure us, and that we may remain configured to him. And the only way we can be transfigured to remain configured is by listening to that voice of God thundered from heaven “this is my beloved son; listen to him”. And the psalmist tells us that “Oh that today you hear his voice, harden not your heart” (Ps. 95:7-8). On our own, we cannot do it, but the responsorial psalm assures us that, “the Lord is my light and my help” (Ps. 26:1).

·      May God transfigure our mortal bodies into his glorified body so that we may be deeply and intimately configured to him to remain in his love and presence now and always. Amen.

·      Happy Sunday!!!