February 25, 2024

Second Sunday of Lent Cycle B

Genesis 22:1-3, 9, 10-13, 15-18; Romans 8:31-34; Mark 9:2-10

In today’s Gospel, we are witness to a important epiphany. It is transfiguration Sunday, the second Sunday in Lent where every year we read one of the three gospel accounts of the event, this year from Saint Mark. What makes this so important is that God is giving us a sneak peek at the prize. At the point of today’s Gospel, Jesus is now well into his earthly ministry, and his passion is just months away. So before this, he give three of this apostles a sample of the glory that is the risen Christ, the Kingdom of God in heaven. He draws back the curtain for just a moment, but then, he tells Peter, James, and John not to mention it to anyone until after his death and resurrection. Why?

There are several reasons that are given. One is: having seen Christ in his glory on the mountain top, the apostles now must go back down the mountain and resume their lives building the Kingdom of God on earth. In fact, many of the leaders of the early Church wrote that this is why Peter makes the confusing offer to build tents – he wanted to prolong this great moment, to make it last longer, to bask in the glory that is the Son of God, to put off going back down the mountain. Isn’t that our reaction to those moments when we are most joyful: we want them to continue forever, we don’t want them to end. I’m told that some drugs such as narcotics cause addiction from their very first use. They cause such a feeling of euphoria that the person will spend the rest of his or her life trying to get that feeling back. They become slaves to their overwhelming desire of getting that high again. Those who expected a messiah with worldly power were slaves to those expectations and were blinded to the teachings of Jesus which were different than what they wanted to hear. Love your enemy? No, no, you mean smite your enemy. So now Jesus wants to be careful that the apostles don’t become distracted with their vision of heaven to the point that they can’t be effective in their earthly ministry.

We all have expectations in life. They are part of being human. Low expectations are a bad thing, since they can lead to the sin of sloth. High expectations can be equally vexing since, if they are unrealistic, they will only disappoint. But in my opinion, the biggest problem with expectations is not that they are too high or too low; it is that they are the wrong expectations. The problem is that they look too far into the future and focus exclusively on the final desired outcome.

This can cause problems because it can results in our not paying attention to what is going on in our lives today. We are going to be happy one day when something happens. And maybe we will – maybe. But why aren’t we happy today? We toil away at a job we don’t like because we think that something down the road – money, a promotion, eventual retirement – something will make us happy later. Maybe we’re in the wrong job, but more likely we just are not taking the time to enjoy those aspects of the job that we do enjoy. Or maybe we come to Mass because we think that, by doing so, we’ll get to heaven when we die. But why aren't we getting joy from the Mass, right here, right now, putting ourselves into the awesome presence of the worship of our great God. Or people, especially teenagers, become slaves to the goal of being liked by others, and they make themselves miserable now by doing things that they know that they shouldn’t, that won’t really make them happy, just so that they will be continued to be liked by others in the future, the fear of one day facing rejection. Another example: a job, even one that we like, if it is just a means to getting money to buy things for the family, causes problems when it takes too much time away from the family it was meant to provide for. Turns out they want your presence in their lives, a process that brings ongoing joy, rather than the thing that money bought, an outcome that might bring joy.

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, is telling us to make sure that we have the right expectations in life. By giving the apostles a glimpse of the future, the Kingdom of God in heaven, he then tells them not to let it be a distraction for the current task at hand, building the Kingdom of God here on earth. He also tells them throughout the gospel that he wants them to have joy while they are doing it, that the Kingdom of God on earth is a work-in-progress that should bring joy now, that those joys will help carry the crosses that we bear. This is an important lesson for us during our Lenten journey. Now is the time to examine our expectations of life in the light of Christ’s teachings. Now is the time to look at what Christ did for us, and what that means to us. Now is the time to examine the ways our lives are not joyful and how we can change our expectations, focused on the present, focused on the process of working towards our goals, in order to bring joy to our lives as well as those around us.

The famous physicist Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with ALS, also know as Lou Gehrig disease, at 21-year-old. He once said: “My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus." [ https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/expectations ] As many of you know, he still accomplished major breakthroughs in modern physics, a great mind trapped in a withered body. Despite what he said, he still had some expectations, as evidenced by the things he managed to accomplish. But that was because he was able to focus on the present, focus on the process of his work, and appreciate those things he was able to do at the time that he was able to do them.* As anyone here that has had a similar experience, such as a cancer diagnosis, can tell you, you can wait until a major life crisis to examine your expectations in life, or you can listen to Jesus today and get started now.

As we continue with our Mass, may the Eucharist be the sacrament that brings Christ and his graces to us right here, in the present moment, and allows us to appreciate all of our gifts that we already have. May the Holy Spirit help us to set expectations that are centered around bringing joy to our lives and the lives of those around us. At baptism, we already began our climb up the mountain of the Lord, where we too will one day see the final transfiguration, where we will have eternal joy in the presence of God. May we also be aware that Christ also wants us to find joy along the way up the mountain, and not just at the top.

*Some might question why I would choose a famous atheist as an example for a Catholic homily. The answer is that we should be willing to learn from anyone, of any faith or no faith at all. After all, we are God’s creatures, endowed by God with abilities that we can all learn from, whether they give credit to God for them or not. Also, as smart as Stephen Hawkins was in math and science, he just didn’t think through his philosophical questions very well. (In fact, he thought that philosophy was dead and had been replaced by science.) He stated on a TV show on the Discovery Channel: We are each free to believe what we want and it is my view that the simplest explanation is there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization. There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking ] So the obvious question is: who is he grateful to? Even an atheist is wired to believe in something beyond himself as a mere collection of atoms.