2ND SUNDAY OF LENT A

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THE IMPORTANT WORD



There it is again! At the Transfiguration, the Lord Jesus heard another time the sweetest words ever addressed to him. "Son! This is my beloved Son." Surely this event took him back to his baptism when at the Jordan he heard those words for the first time in public.  What a wonderful experience to hear your Father proudly call you son, beloved Son.



The willingness of Jesus to offer all his life for the sake of the kingdom was due to the fact that he knew he had a place in that kingdom. His Father was always with him. And he was always at his side. Nothing more could be more ecstatic than to know that you are truly loved by the one you truly love. For Jesus this was the core of all his relationships, the source from which flowed all his fervor to embrace others as his brothers and sisters.



Why do we listen to the gospel of the Transfiguration (Mt 17) today? Well because at Lent we too are drawn back to the unique experience we had when God, the Father of Jesus and our own Father, called us his son… his daughter… his beloved. Lent is a return to baptism, in case we forget how great its importance is. We were baptized not primarily to be card-carryiing member of the church, to be given the name Christian, to enter the family of believers. Above all that, baptism is the moment God called us by name, as his very own children. Isn’t that wonderful?



A young filmmaker from Australia recently returned to the country to look for his birth parents. Mature and accomplished, his life seems incomplete until he could find the first people in the world who called him “son” before he got lost and was sent to an orphanage and from there for adoption by an Australian couple.



Because Jesus was reminded of the Father’s love, he faced his life with excitement and energy. Because he heard his Father addressing him with affection and devotion, he courageously faced everything that was to come to him. This boldness and adventurousness towards life was what he wanted to share to his disciples as he said to them: Do not be afraid!



A Christian, a child of God is not a slave to fear, but a master of it. Whether you are faced with trials as big as mountains, sins as stubborn as rocks, personal circumstances that seem irreversible, the Lord is asking us to regain strength and continue embracing both the cross and the glories of life.  We are baptized, we are Christians and just like Jesus, our first companion and guide is our Father.

Praise to his name!




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