Homily – Second Sunday of Lent 2012 - Archdiocese of Los Angeles

Homily – Second Sunday of Lent 2012 (B) i
Most Rev. José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Los Angeles, California
March 4, 2012
My brothers and sisters in Christ,
During this season of Lent we are on a spiritual journey. And our Lenten journey is
meant to be a symbol for us, a reminder of the meaning of our Christian life.
From the moment we are baptized, we are sent into this world — just as Jesus was
driven into the desert after his baptism. That’s why last Sunday, we began our Lenten
journey by reliving Jesus’ temptation in the desert. This was to show us that just as
Jesus did, each one of us must struggle against the devil and his temptations; each one
of us has to reject sin and to turn to God.
Every Lent begins with this story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert. And every year on
the second Sunday of Lent, we hear the Gospel story of the Transfiguration.
So in the Gospel we have just heard, we climb the high mountain with Jesus and his
three disciples, Peter, James and John. With them, we become witnesses to his
Transfiguration.
By his Transfiguration, Jesus today is giving us a beautiful glimpse of our destiny and
our “destination.” He is showing us what our earthly pilgrimage is leading us to. For
just a brief moment, we get to see the “goal” of our Christian lives.
The Transfiguration is a sign of Jesus’ resurrection. And his Transfiguration is a
promise of our own resurrection.
As we heard, it is really an amazing scene. Jesus leads his disciples to the mountaintop
and before their eyes his face starts to shine like the sun. His clothes become as “white
as light.” Then Moses and Elijah appear and start talking to Jesus.
Moses, of course, is the great lawgiver of Israel, and Elijah was a great prophet. In their
lives, both of them had the experience of going up on a mountain and having a glorious
encounter with God.
In the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah are meant to symbolize the Law and the
Prophets. They are there to testify to the disciples — and to us — that Jesus is the

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Messiah. That Jesus is the One who fulfills everything that God was promising in the
Old Testament.
That is why Moses and Elijah vanish at the end of the scene. Because with the coming
of Jesus, the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled. All we need is Jesus who shows us the
face of God.
And the Transfiguration reveals to us the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit
comes in the form of a cloud and overshadows the mountain. And out of this cloud, the
Father’s voice speaks and declares, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!”
My brothers and sisters, these are great words of hope and encouragement for us today.
God our Father has given us his own beloved Son — to be with us, to teach us, and to
intercede for us.
That’s why we also hear the story of Abraham and his beloved son Isaac in our first
reading today. Because Abraham trusted God so completely, so totally — that he did
not withhold from God his only beloved son.
This is not easy for us to understand, how a father could agree to sacrifice his only son!
But we know that Abraham believed that God could give life to the dead, and so he put
his hope in God and by his faith he gave glory to God. ii
And Abraham, through his love and obedience, shows us the perfect image of God’s
love and God’s passion for our salvation.
That is what St. Paul is talking about in today’s second reading. St. Paul tells us: “If
God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him
over for us all.”
My brothers and sisters, what a beautiful love God has for us!
God loves each one of us so much that he is willing to hand over his only Son to suffer
and to die for us.
We need to love God as he has loved us — by giving all of ourselves to him, as Christ
gave himself up for us. iii
So today let us ask for the grace to make ourselves more worthy of his great love for us
— through our faithful practice of our Lenten disciplines; through our sacrifices and our
penances and through our prayer and almsgiving.
Let us look to Abraham as our father in faith. Let us live with his same faith. Let us live
with his same confidence in our Father’s love.

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So we need to examine ourselves today. What are we still holding back from God?
What do we have in our lives that is getting in the way? That is stopping us from giving
ourselves completely to God?
My brothers and sisters, let’s not hold anything back from God!
At the end of the Transfiguration today, the disciples found themselves looking around.
And as we heard, they “no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.”
This is a beautiful message for us, my brothers and sisters. Jesus alone is with us too.
And he is the only One we need.
Jesus is with us when we are afraid and when we are suffering. He is with us when
sometimes we cannot feel God’s presence or his love. He is with us when we are having
difficulty finding purpose in our lives.
And if Jesus is with us — if God is for us, who can be against us?
So let us take great strength and encouragement from these readings today. Let us take
up our cross daily and follow him more closely during this Lenten season. iv
We know that Jesus had to suffer and die in order to enter into his glory. v
Today in his Transfiguration, he is promising us that if we journey with him, if we
follow him with true devotion, he will change our lowly bodies to be like his glorious
body, in the resurrection. vi
So let us ask Mary, Mother of God’s only beloved Son, to help us to listen to his Word
and to follow his example, so that on our earthly pilgrimage, our lives may be
transfigured by the light of his presence.
i Readings:
ii Rom. 4:17–18, 21; Heb. 11:17, 19.
iii Eph. 5:2.
iv Luke 9:23.
v Luke 24:26, 46.
vi Phil. 3:21.