Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I love the way the gospel ends as the disciples were discussing what rising from the dead meant. You can imagine the conversation, what does he mean, is he going to die? Wait, who is going to die? Him? No way, how can he die, what would happen to us? What is he talking about? The disciples are very silly; they have another idea of what this super Messiah should be like. They thought he would make them famous, good-looking and rich and they are arguing about who will sit at his right and his left. It is encouraging to see how much they don’t understand as we do often. All the readings today mean that Christ is going to give his life for you, and it is only the second week of Lent. It is so early in Lent and right away the Word puts us in the Passover, puts us into Easter, into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The first reading from Genesis Abraham is asked to sacrifice his only son. But Abraham has two sons so perhaps God clarified it for him, take your son, the one you love and go! And God the Father in the gospel, speaking from above says, this is my beloved Son, the one I love. It is a curious and beautiful parallelism and means that Christ is a new Isaac, and this event prefigures what God will do with Jesus Christ, his own son, for you. He will do it only for love of you! So, Abraham takes his son to the top of the mountain and in the end does not sacrifice him. We see how God provided and a lamb stuck in the bush is offered to God. Who is the true lamb that God will provide so that we will not die? Jesus Christ!
Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him at many important moments of his life. Here he took them apart and led them up a high mountain. They were alone, away from the world. He separates them and brings only them. The Lord also brings us up a high mountain, takes you away from the normal things of life when you go to the eucharist today. He takes you to the mountain, which is the Church, because you face a very high mountain, and the Lord wants to manifest himself to you. He wants to be transfigured before you on that very high mountain. What is the suffering you are living with today, a depression, an anxiety, an addiction that you cannot get out of even though you want to, but you cannot. So, Christ takes you to a very high mountain to show you something. What does he do? We don’t know exactly but he is transfigured; he shows them his glory.
The second reading says it, that God does not spare his own Son but handed him over for all of us and will he not give everything else with him? Who can separate us from this love of God, could it be Christ? In no way, he died for us to show us about the love of the Father. Christ is not close to the love of the Father; he is the love of the Father. The apostles were terrified. It was revealed to them, these little ones, that through the cross that there will be a resurrection. Through the cross they will have eternal life. If you lose your life, you will gain it. In your marriage or priesthood or whatever your state in life, God is leading you up a very high mountain, you need to go alone, so that you can experience this glory of God. That is what the disciples experience and why Peter says that it is good for us to be here.
The eucharist will help you to be able to say this suffering, this poverty that I have is good for me. This problem with my marriage is good for me, I cannot run away from it. How good it is, this cross I have, how good. Only a person of faith can say this when he sees the glory of God on this mountain, in that suffering. He sees in that cross that Christ is alive, alive and is not reigning there with a king’s crown or with a royal cloth. He sees that through the cross one can experience the resurrection. The disciples were afraid of suffering, afraid to go up this mountain. We are afraid also of a crisis. But at one moment the Holy Spirit reveals his love to you and you hear the words, this is my beloved son. Thank you, Lord, how good you are to me. It is good that we are here; this is faith, brothers and sisters. Often, we go running away, fleeing, and do not want to climb that mountain, but the Lord helps you to go up and you don’t want to see a dead Christ.
This cross where Christ is still alive with his eyes open, helps me a lot and it is the perfect antidote to the devil’s lie that He doesn’t love you. Pray in front of the cross because Christ is saying I love you, I love you; this is the truth. Don’t cry for him, cry for your sins. Christ gave his life for you. He is here for you. I am the one who should be nailed, and we are not. He has gone in your place like Maximilian Kolbe who went to die in place of a man sentenced to death in Auschwitz. Because he died another one was saved. Christ stands in line to die for you. He knows you cannot, so he goes for you.
Go up this high mountain. Don’t be afraid to enter the will of God. What is the will of God? That no one be lost. Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Don’t do his will with resignation but knowing that you will be glorified. That thing that you think is horrible, that you cannot stand; it will become glorious, it will be transfigured. Do you know what figure he wants to give you? This one of the cross, loving your enemy, laying your life down for the other. When we have Christ, we can give our life.