Traditional Catholic Teaching - SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT

SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT

He was transfigured before them.
St. Matthew 17: 2.

Our Lord was transfigured before His three most highly favored disciples, Peter, James and John, on a lonely mountain whither He had led them. He shows Himself in His glory to those who seek Him apart from the world, in prayer and meditation. He was transfigured before the three Apostles who were especially to bear witness to Him; before Peter, the Head of the Church; James, who as bishop of Jerusalem was the first of the Apostles to die a martyr's death, and John, destined to outlive all the rest, and to preach to the faithful even to the end of the first century, defending our Lord's divinity against the attacks of unbelievers and heretics.

He was transfigured before them, that His subsequent Passion might not make them waver in their faith. He was transfigured before them that, when afterwards He should hang upon the Cross, they might see in Him not a weak, dying human being, but God incarnate, revealing His majesty most gloriously in the humiliation and shame of His suffering. He was transfigured because of His Passion, and His Passion was His transfiguration. The Church points to this truth by ordering the gospel account of the transfiguration to be read in Lent. Suffering and pain transfigure men also, for pain marks a man off from others, and to generous hearts a sufferer is more worthy of honour than a prosperous person. Pain borne with patience gives us the impression of being something great ; it arouses our sympathy and draws us nearer together. Sorrow endured in common has far greater power to unite men than joy. Pain can transform men, and we feel the truth of this fact deep in our hearts, and it is confirmed by a sort of affectation, very common at the present time, which aims at imitating pain, and makes people delight in fancied misfortunes and imaginary sufferings, so that they delude themselves and others with the idea that they are lonely and forsaken, hoping thus to make themselves interesting to themselves and others, and to have at least the appearance of being transformed by pain. Of course this kind of imaginary suffering has no transforming effect whatever, but only obscures one's understanding, for a morbid desire of pain, a fancy that one is unhappy, is a proof of want of sense.

Real pain not only transforms us in the sight of others, but a soul that actually suffers is transformed by manifold kinds of experience, dearly bought but very precious, and by a kind of steadfastness and courage derived from pain. This is true of merely ordinary suffering, but it is still more true of that endured by a Christian who strives to follow our Lord's example.

Before His transfiguration on Thabor the face of Christ shone as the sun and His garments became white as snow, and when afterwards He was transfigured by the infinite love with which He suffered on Calvary, His head was crowned with thorns in token of His transfiguration by suffering. To this crown of thorns the Church refers the following prophecy of Holy Scripture: "Go forth, ye daughters of Zion (ye faithful souls) and see Solomon in his diadem" (Cant. 3: 2). "Solomon" means peaceful, and we know who is the true Solomon, the real Bringer of Peace, whose head was crowned with the most glorious diadem, even the crown of thorns, marking His transfiguration by pain. It is also the crown of His mercy, for when was divine mercy ever displayed more unmistakably than when our Saviour, being crowned with thorns, suffered for us, when He cried with a loud voice: "It is consummated. Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit"?

At that moment the angels in heaven exulted, crying: "Praise ye the Lord, for His mercy is great, and of His goodness there is no end." But on earth there was a solemn silence as when the spirit of God moved over the waters at the creation, for now the great work was accomplished which should cause a new race to rise from the waters of baptism, free from the dreary darkness of sin. Christ's crown of thorns was also the crown of His mercy and likewise of His triumph on earth.

As a crown it reminds us that He who wears it is a King, the King of righteousness, and in heaven it has been changed into a crown of glory. As Jesus on the Cross bent His head, crowned with thorns, many graves of just men were opened; and when He comes as Judge, wearing the crown of glory, all graves will be opened, and all the just will rise again. With joy will they behold the glory of their King, from whose hand they will themselves receive their crowns. With what gratitude will they then think of the crown of thorns that obtained such glory for them! In the same way, for the disciples as well as for their Master, all earthly pain will be transfigured in eternity.

Our own crown of thorns will often inspire us with sympathy for the sorrows of others. He who has suffered much himself knows how to comfort and help others, and thus his crown of thorns is also turned into a crown of mercy.

Our Lord's crown of thorns reminds us also of His divine justice, which will one day exact a terrible penalty from those who have been disloyal to their King and have rejected the crown of earthly suffering. A man makes a right use of suffering if he lets it encourage him to practise Christian justice, and is led on by it to virtue and away from evil. It is better for us to suffer and to be united with God than to live in pleasure and amusement apart from Him. Every sorrow ought to remind us of the justice of God, who in His love leads us to heaven on a thorny path, in order that eternal suffering may not be our lot hereafter.

Let us, therefore, profit by the thorny crown of suffering, and never forget to live so as to please God, and then our crown will some day obtain for us the crown of glory, transfiguration on His holy mountain, and complete fulfillment of all that He in His infinite love has promised us through Moses and the Prophets and the holy Apostles. Our Lord's transfiguration was effected by suffering, and so is that of every true Christian whose heart gathers strength from suffering, and who is encouraged by it not to swerve from the path of duty, but to go forward bravely until he attains the crown of everlasting glory.

We have looked at Jesus transfigured on Thabor and crowned with thorns on Calvary, and we have learned that pain is intended to transform a Christian; but if it only casts a cloud of discontent and anger, of selfishness and sin over his soul, there can be no transfiguration either on earth or in heaven, but thorns of suffering in both this life and the next. May the crown of earthly pain some day be changed for us all into that of everlasting glory and happiness. Amen.

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