This Sermon is prepared by
Rev.Fr.Peter Jayakanthan sss
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi Catholic Church,
Houston, Texas, US
2nd Sunday of the LentMy Mountain Top moments……Gen22:1-2, 9, 10-13, Rom8:31-34 Mk9:2-10Dear Sisters, Brothers and Children, I welcome you to this second week of the season of Lent. We rediscovered our desert days during our first week of Lent. This was a call given to us in the first Sunday of Lent to move from our desert days recognizing the accompanying angelic presence. On this second Sunday, we are asked to look back at our mountaintop moments where we lived through our darkness before experiencing the fullness of light. Our practices of fasting and penance may lead us to be united with Our Lord on the mountaintop. We may remind ourselves that every time we gather for the Eucharist; it is another journey to the mountaintop of Golgotha where we participate with Our Lord’s passion, death and glorious resurrection of Jesus.We compare mountaintop to darkness and as an impossible task: Facing problems to sustain the job….. Struggling to clear the exams for Master’s degree…… Coping with the final round of chemotherapy for cancer……. Avoiding the acceptance of the loss of a loved one……… Burying religious and spiritual needs………. Failing to say no to a long-time disturbance….. Unwilling to sacrifice for self-interest and not realizing the greater value……. These are some of the dark moments we come across in our daily journey. We hesitate and avoid climbing these rocky places on the mountain. The mountaintop is not a scary dark place, it is not a lonely place, and it is not a suicidal place; rather it is the place of encountering our God of light and hope. Our darkness is transformed into bright light when we reach the top of the mountain. Most religions reveal that they seek and encounter God at the height or top of the hill or mountain. This signifies the super-power of God, and also offers the moment of transformation. Here, we are given back our original image and likeness of God, which we allowed to be disfigured in order to protect our selfish desires. Receiving back, recovering and reforming our image of God is the moment of transfiguration in our life. The readings of today invite us to climb up to the top of the mountain, with Abraham, and with Jesus and His beloved disciples. Climbing any mountain is not an easy job. It involves risk, danger, uncertainty, possibly wild animals, dehydration and fear. Climbing is being willing to breakthrough my disfigured self, ready to sacrifice and wanting to walk through darkness in order to experience of the light of Christ. Noah’s Ark came to rest after the forty days of wind, storm and flood, and finally came to rest at the mountains of Ararat. Gen8:4. Abraham climbed the mountain Moriah with a heavy heart to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Gen22:2 Solomon built the Temple on Mount Moriah, where sacrifices were offered until Jesus came. 2 Chronicles3:1 Moses encountered Yahweh on Mount Sinai (also known as Mt. Horeb); Here God revealed Himself to Moses and offered the Ten Commandments. Ex19:16-20:12. The Prophet Elijah ran for his life and walked through the desert, with pain and fear to experience God at Mt. Horeb. 1Kings19. David built his city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion. Heb12:22, Rev14:1 The above details reveal that mountain and mountaintop have traditionally been the place of meeting and moments of God. Why did God call His own people, leaders, prophets to the top of the mountain to meet and to encounter Him? God wanted them to climb, to walk through and move through the tunnel of uncertainty, darkness, doubts, disfigured self and life, before they experienced glory, light, transformation and transfiguration. We are offered three mountain encounters for our reflection today. They are Mount Moriah in the first reading, Mount Horeb in the Gospel, and Mt. Calvary of Eucharist. Mount Moriah: What was the struggle and darkness Abraham faced to climb Moriah? What was the lesson Yahweh wanted to offer to Salvation History? Abraham must have been struggling between his faith and his beloved son Isaac of his blood. But he kept moving with this dark clouds, pain, sadness and uncertainty. The voice and the gift of the lamb for sacrifice was the moment of God’s close encounter. Abraham’s pain worries and struggle turned into countless blessings. Secondly, there was the practice of human sacrifice by different communities. Children were mercilessly put in the fire for sacrifice. Canaanites and Ammonites offered their sons as human sacrifices. Micah 6:6-8 People approached the Prophet Micah as to what to offer to the Lord: fruits, lamb, oil or their first-born son? Micah provided the answer with the example of Abraham, to do good and walk humbly with the Lord. I am sure Abraham’s encounter at Moriah remained as a great example for all ages in Salvation History. Mount Tabor – Mount Hermon: Tabor is a small mountain, less than 1000 feet high. Mount Hermon is 9200 feet high. The event of Transfiguration must have taken place at the latter one, Mt. Hermon. It really happened. The Transfiguration is historical because there were three disciples who witnessed this: the two in Peter in 2Pet1:16-18 and John, 1Jn1:1-4, who express the glory of the Lord which they saw. Why does Mark give the Jewish Christians this experience? In 70AD, when Mark was writing, the Cross was considered as madness and scandal. The Cross was looked on as an obstacle to accepting Jesus as the Messiah. The Jews did not accept the Cross, Jesus with the Cross, or Christians accepting the Cross. Nero persecuted Christians as they embraced the Cross and gave their lives. 1Cor1:22-31 speaks about the glory and victory of the Cross. So, Mark was showing Christians that the Cross is the path to glory. Why does Peter say ‘no to the sufferings of Jesus?’ The official religion taught that the Messiah would be a glorious and victorious one, thus he carried this concept strongly, and along with his disciples did not desire the path of the Cross before glory and victory. Jesus brought them to change, transform and transfigure their thought and image of the Messiah. Theirs was a distorted and disfigured wanting for a victorious Messiah. They finally understood their call to be disciples of climbing the mountain for the glorious experience of light mostly after the Pentecost. Peter’s desire of forming three tents reveals that the Jewish people were in the middle of the six days of the Feast of Tents. This feast is celebrated in remembrance of the receiving the Law after the forty years in the desert. The people put up tents and waited for the visit of God with the same faith and trust of their ancestors. Thus did Peter believe the visit of Elijah and Moses was for this Feast of Tents. Jesus told him that the crucified Christ will be glorified, the deformed Christ will be transformed and the destroyed Christ will be resurrected in glory. The Cross and suffering are the way; so Christ called and prepared them from Mt. Tabor, or Hermon, to Mt. Calvary. The presence of Elijah represents the Prophets, and Moses signifies the Law, affirming that The Cross is the path to glory, as all the prophets and leaders experienced this. Mount Calvary-Kolkata: We are called to climb the mountain along with Jesus every time we gather for Eucharist. Our participation will be full and complete if only we offer our disfigured self, lose our thoughts and our fragile attitude along with the bread and wine, that we may be transfigured with Jesus’ Body and Blood. In climbing the mountaintop in order to encounter the Living God, we will be strengthened in body, mind and spirit, in solidarity with each other, who are experiencing their own cross of struggles, through the Eucharist, and in Christ’s promise of victory and glory eternally. “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain…this was the speech Dr. Martin Luther King (1929-1968) delivered just before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. After King’s death, his experience of the mountaintop inspired his followers to continue his work. As Jesus’ disciples looked to the mountaintop experience of Jesus’ Transfiguration and were strengthened to further His mission, so we too are called to follow the will of God, the rugged path of the Cross and its glory. What mountain moments do I struggle to climb? What are the distorted thoughts and the disfigured image that I need to break through, in order to experience light and transfiguration?-Amen. 
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