Richard Bollman, S.J.

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT -- C -- 2007

Comments on the Scripture: Genesis 15:1-18; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:28-36

Today's stories from the old and new testaments

tell of the mystery of contact between the human and the divine,

between moments of ordinary life and moments of touching eternity.

Just who is this God that has been revealed to us,

and what kind of trust are we invited to entertain for ourselves.

One story comes from about 2000 B.C.,

a turning point in the life of Abraham.

Abraham has taken the plunge, he has trusted a connection

with a God who speaks to him personally.

There has been an exchange of promises, but Abraham has not lived

into the fulfilment of these promises.

He has no children with Sarah, and no land to call his own.

(He still has his old name, "Abram.")

Then there occurs the unusual and emphatic exchange

we hear today. A promise is renewed, and a covenant is made.

The other story comes from the life of Christ,

shortly after it became clear to him

how he would not really fulfill the reason for his life

without rejection and death.

Once again, we face the mystery of God’s presence

even as it is clear that Jesus shall undergo a death and a departure in Jerusalem.

Both of these stories are a lot like our own journeys,

where we do not see the future, but are invited to trust God in the present,

God in the promise.

And from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we are called to be a people

who trust the unfolding of grace, God’s gifts,

a people who live in the promise, and who are not deterred by

the greed and consumerism that can replace these promises.

HOMILY: 2007, 2^nd Sunday of Lent "Jesus Christ, the Big Picture"

This important story comes in the middle of the Gospels

by Mark, Matthew, and Luke.

It’s a moment to appreciate the big picture of Jesus’ identity, and presence.,

So you might think of this as a revelation story,

and it is part of the Lenten teachings revealing Jesus

who he is, what he means to us.

A week ago, we contemplated Jesus

sorting out his own values from the temptations to success

the devil put in his way. This was in the desert.

In the desert, Jesus comes across as not only human,

but as a vulnerable person, working hard to find the true way.

So now we are on a mountain, and this too is Jesus.

The story shows us is a Jesus radically connected to God.

And the voice of God is heard here even by the disciples.

We who read the Gospel have heard that voice before,

in the story of the baptism,

but Peter, James, and John hear it for the first time.

The story shows a Jesus connected to his Jewish roots,

to Moses and Elijah, religious leaders who often had to trust in hard times,

but who also were face-to-face friendly with God.

They speak with Jesus about his "Exodus," his death to come,

making a connection between the foundation of Judaism

(the exodus from Egypt)

and this new foundation, or covenant, made through Jesus faithfulness.

His death and rising.

It gives us a Jesus who is still quite human, ready to console us

and walk with us in trouble, to pray with us,

but who wants to show something else about himself:

he is full of God’s radiance and mystery and light.

That’s what we see when we look at him clearly.

Even on the edge of trouble and loss, God shines through him.

This is not to distance himself, but to reveal what life is!

There is a point of view about the human condition

that if we could see the energy field within and around us,

we would be astounded by our vital life.

We are an amazing collocation of matter and energy,

especially when we can look, as it were, beyond the senses.

As always, when we look at Jesus, on the mountain or on the cross,

we always see something of ourselves, of the human condition called to faith.

And yet the story ends with Jesus simply there, in the familiar way,

human and plain, Jesus alone.

This means a lot: the Lord of our lives, the powerful word of God,

is also an intimate friend, fully human.

A mature relationship with Jesus is going to find both these aspects.

On the one hand, there is Jesus the friend and consoler,

who we listen to for advice,

who we get to know from his action and teaching,

who we argue with and learn from.

We meet him in the poor and hungry, and in the community of faith,

where we touch him and find love made real.

But also, and this has been true since the beginning,

he is the powerful Son of God from the beginning:

we actually pray to this Jesus, and invite him into our own life story,

not just for advice, but to do what we can’t do:

to change our hearts, cut through our pettiness, heal our illness.

We plunge in and give him our whole life struggle, to be loved and saved.

We believe we are part of his body being transformed in time.

We take the bread and cup of the Eucharist

so as to become one with him.

This Christian spirituality centered on Christ,

human and yet full of divine power and light and purpose,

is hard to express in words.

But we never want the paradox to be simplified for us.

That’s why I think it’s important to have a big view of Jesus,

powerful and creative among everything that has been made;

and a Jesus who is intimately engaged with our human brokeness,

able to weep, never separated from those he loves.

Take this moment to place your hand in the hand of Christ,

to breathe in your body the breath of Christ’s spirit,

and to allow him to be powerful for you, powerful in you,

for the journey you have to make in this life.

[COMMENTARY ON THE NICENE CREED,

related to this Gospel]:

This morning let’s pay attention to the Creed in the light of this Gospel.

The Nicene Creed. This comes from the 4^th century, the Council of Nicea.

This is an expression of faith in a paradoxical God

and a paradoxical Jesus.

In the 4^th century, the struggle to find this language

was a hard road; many factions divided the Church.

a number of influential teachers, philosophers from Greece,

northern Africa, and the middle east, tried to simplify matters:

Jesus was never human, but was truly a God descended among us.

Or, he was a very special prophet

who gradually became god-like as a special gift.

Some Greek thinkers were scandalized

at the seemingly degrading mixture of the divine with the earthly,

since they liked to keep those two worlds apart.

There were many vexing questions arising from the early history of the community,

those first 300 years.

Is the Church itself a civic organization, a family, just what?

(No, said the Council, it is not a civic thing, it is an object of faith,

beyond human efforts: one, holy, catholic, apostolic).

Do people who fell from the Church during persecution

need to be re-baptized?

(No, there is only one baptism. But the Church can be holy

even when its members are sinners.)

And most important, who is God, what words can we find?

God is both Abba, and Maker: Father and Creator: which means that

the God of Jesus is the God of Moses.

And Jesus is God from God, light from light,

not made later on, but begotten, born from God, from the beginning.

And at the same time, he is one who was born in time,

of a specific woman, whose name is mentioned, Mary;

who was sentenced to death by a specific governor,

whose name is also mentioned, Pontius Pilate.

He did not pretend to be human.

As we approach the Nicene Creed today, let’s be grateful and glad

that the first generations did not oversimplify the mystery of the Christ.