Mark 9:2-10
Lent, explained
 by Rev. Jack Peterson
         Reprinted by permission of "The Arlington Catholic Herald"

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Mark wrote to explain Christ
to the new Gentile converts.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.  And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.  Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.  Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here!  Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.  Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him."  Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.  So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.

WHY LENT?  The 40 days of Lent are given to us by the church to help us dive deeper into our privileged relationship with God.  It is an opportunity to discover with the eyes of renewed faith the depth and beauty of God's goodness and power made manifest in Jesus Christ.  It is an invitation from our gracious God to fall more deeply in love with him.  It is a season to mourn our weaknesses and repent of our sins.  It is a summons to remove obstacles to our capacity to respond in freedom to the Gospel "way of life."  It is a call to more humbly serve our neighbor out of deep gratitude for all that God has so generously given us.  Lent is a great gift to every Christian.

WHY A MOUNTAIN?  For Jews, the "high mountain" represents a place of revelation.  It harkens back to God revealing himself and calling Moses on Mount Horeb from a burning bush.  It refers to God appearing again to Moses and revealing the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.  In our Gospel today, Jesus takes Peter, James and John and leads them up a high mountain by themselves.  Jesus intends to reveal something of supreme importance to the Apostles and to all the world.

WHY THE TRANSFIGURATION?  Here, on this mountain, with a spectacular view of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus sets aside the cloak of his humanity for a brief moment to offer these three honored Apostles a glimpse of his divinity.  At this stage in their journey of faith, they were quite familiar with Jesus' human nature.  They had traveled with him, eaten with him, sat at his feet, listened to voice and gazed into his eyes.  The disciples grasped that he is fully human.  However, Jesus is also fully God, indeed, he is the second person of the Holy Trinity.  This truth was much harder to grasp.  So, Jesus took this opportunity to make sure that their faith in him would rest on the truth of his full identity. On this holy mountain, Jesus reveals that he is Emmanuel, or "God with us."  This grace-filled moment would be a huge source of encouragement down the road when Our Lord would embrace his cross and when he would invite the Apostles to embrace theirs.

WHY ELIJAH AND MOSES?  These two great Old Testament figures represent the prophets and the law, very critical elements of the faith of the Jews.  Their presence at this moment of revelation proclaims that the whole of the Old Testament was now being fulfilled in the gift and person of Jesus Christ.  The icing on the cake is the voice of the Father, coming from he cloud: "This is my beloved son.  Listen to him."  God had prepared the world for this gift.  Now, the Father is, in essence, saying, "Everything that I desire to reveal to you as my beloved children is now to be found in the person, words and deeds of my beloved son."

WHY ME?  God fashioned you quite intentionally because he greatly desires to share his very life and love with you for all eternity.  He desires to be wonderfully, deeply united with you for way beyond your time on the Earth.  Lent is a time for you to recall that invitation - to stop in your tracks and focus on what is truly important in this life.  Lent is a focused stretch of time for you to beg for the grace of conversion of heart.  It is an opportunity to learn who to love and how to love.  Lent challenges us to embrace the reality that God's ways are the only road to the happiness and fulfillment that you were made for and long for with all your being.

WHY?  "Brothers and sisters" 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, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?"  (Rom 8:31b-32)