2nd Sunday of Lent, A

Transfigured to be disciples of Jesus

Matthew 17:1-9

The blocks in striving to know God were removed last week when we confronted temptations.

For this second week, we are invited to see Jesus in his grandeur and majesty.  But Jesus also invites us to see ourselves who we really are.

In the first reading, God promised Abraham, "I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing."

If Abram had not taken the Lord's words seriously, he wouldn't have been the father of many nations.

We too have our our promises; are we ready to receive them or day in and day out, we have said "no" to the Lord?

In the gospel, Jesus is the direct image of the Father, "This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him."  

Who are we?  What is our transformed selves?  We are disciples-in-process.

I have used the marks of a true Church to describe the qualities of a true disciple:

1. One - the disciple-in-process unites himself totally to God and his children; to the Church that God loves;

2. Catholic - the disciple-in-process speaks God's language, a language that changes the hearts of all people.  His actions are sources of salvation for the least, last , and lost; 

3. Holy - the disciple aligns himself in the holiness of Jesus and strives to purify all his intentions to conform to Jesus; 

4.  Apostolic - the disciple is sent on a mission to transfigure the world according to the image of the Jesus.

Remember these words from Lumen Gentium that marks the transformation of a Christian: Christ's disciples are to conform themselves to him until he is formed in them (cf. Gal 4:19). "For this reason we, who have been made like to him, who have died with him and risen with him, are taken up into the mysteries of his life, until we reign together with him" (LG 7 § 4).