Second Sunday of Lent, February 24, 2013
Epistle, 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-7 Gospel, Matthew 17: 1-9
I suppose
all the Apostles asked themselves, “Why did Jesus pick me? I’m just an ordinary
fisherman. Peter. I’m just a tax
collector. Matthew. I persecuted the
church. St. Paul. Judas may have been the only one who didn’t ask this
question. He apparently was more interested in the things of this world than in
his soul. They were picked because they became men of strong faith, a faith so
strong that they died for our Lord – all except St. John the Evangelist.
Their
faith was not always strong, but it developed over the years being with Christ,
and now that His Passion was near Jesus wanted His disciples to really know Him.
After nearly three years following Him, listening to His words and witnessing
His miracles, they believed in Him. One of them, Peter, even told Him, “Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” But the test to which they were
about to be put in His Passion was so great that Christ armed them with an
extraordinary grace. By the
Transfiguration Jesus desired first to remove from His Disciples the scandal of
the Cross; secondly, so the lowliness of His voluntary Passion might not
trouble their faith, He let them see His hidden glory.
What are the things that can make
our faith as strong as the faith of Christ’s Disciples? We can look at the
story of the Canaanite woman recorded at Mathew 15: 21-28. Jesus was approached
by this woman the crowd who cried out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of
David: my daughter is grievously troubled by a devil.” Jesus ignored her, but
“she came and adored Him, saying, ‘Lord help me.’” Jesus seemingly insulted
her, saying, “It is not good to take the bread of the children [of Israel], and
to cast it to the dogs.” The woman replied, “Yeah, Lord: for the whelps also
eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters. Then Jesus
answering, said to her: ‘O woman, great is thy faith: be it done to thee as
thou wilt’: and her daughter was cured from that hour.”
What made her faith great? St.
Francis De Sales says it was attentiveness. She paid attention to where the
Lord was, even though she was just one of a large crowd following Jesus that
day. She seized her opportunity to approach and present her plea, “Have pity on
me, Son of David.” She believed if only He would have pity on her it would be
enough to relieve her daughter from attacks by a devil. Her faith was great
because she was attentive to what our Lord said and that we can see by the
conversation she had with Him. Many if not most of the people in that crowd
that day were listening to Jesus, but if asked later what He had said they
would not be able to repeat it because their mind was on their real “treasure”
be it a business deal they were working
on, or planting a field they owned. It’s a lot like us on Sundays. We listen to
a sermon, but not with great attention and so we don’t remember it later.
We are asked to pray and meditate on
the sermons we hear and on the Word of God given to us at Mass. But what is it
to meditate? It is prayer. To pray with attention is to have a lively, vigilant
faith like the Canaanite woman, paying attention to the words we say. Such a faith displays many virtues that go
along with it. Four of these virtues were displayed by this woman: confidence,
perseverance, patience and humility. She does not doubt Our Lord’s power or His
will, simply saying to Him: “You are so gentle and kind to everyone, that I have
no doubt if I beg You to have pity on me You will do so, and as soon as You do,
my daughter will be healed.”
Our Lord ignored her, so she
persevered in her request, “Lord, Son of David, have pity on me.” She continued
in this, even though the Apostles asked Jesus to dismiss her because she was
becoming a nuisance. But “let us
persevere in prayer at all times. For if Our Lord seems not to hear us, it is
not because He wants to refuse us. Rather, His purpose is to compel us to cry
out louder and to make us more conscious of the greatness of His mercy.”
Jesus
at last responded to the woman, and His response must have hurt her deeply, “It
is not right to take the food of the children of Israel and give it to dogs.”
Her patience was tried, but she continued, and her response was: “Yeah, Lord: for the whelps also eat of the
crumbs that fall from the table of their masters.” In this response the
Canaanite woman displayed confidence, perseverance, patience and humility. It
was as if she said, “Even though I am a dog, Lord, I still look for the crumbs
from Your table.” It seems hard for a mere human being to impress God, but this
pagan Canaanite woman did it. “O woman, what great faith you have,” Jesus
responded, and immediately removed the troublesome devil from her
daughter.
Today’s Gospel reading is of the
Transfiguration of Christ before Peter, James and John. Our Lord’s Passion was
about to start and He wanted to strengthen His Apostles’ faith. Christ knew all
that was about to happen, that the world would seem to defeat Him by killing
Him, and that would be a test of the faith of His followers. This was also a
promise that as Jesus, Moses and Elias glowed with a light from heaven, so
would we when we enter into His kingdom.
Deuteronomy
19: 15
says “In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand.” The
Transfiguration fulfilled this. The Messiah, Who had been promised in mysteries
and in types, now stands with His early followers who waited so long for him.
The Old and the New Covenants agree one with the other and both proclaim His
glory. What could be more stable or more steadfast? It was because of this that St. John wrote:
The Law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (John 1:
17)
It is our turn now to patiently
await His return, as the Jews of old awaited His coming.
Let
us not run from Him. Let us take His yoke upon us because He is meek and humble
of heart, because His yoke is sweet and His burden light. Here we will find rest for our souls. +++
(Thanks to St. Francis de
Sales for much of today’s sermon.)
We Celebrate the Traditional
Tridentine Latin Mass
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