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Live
Letters Second Sunday of
Lent |
The Catholic Telegraph
March 9, 2001The gospels of the first two Sundays of Lent have the same subject in each of the three cycles of readings. The first Sunday is about the temptation of Jesus, the second about His transfiguration, each as presented by the synoptic evangelists. It’s as if the Church wants us to be clear about the subject matter of the lenten season: struggle against the powers of evil and transformation into a new way of being. Both of these themes illuminate the meaning of the lenten agenda of baptism (for new members) and of the need for personal change of heart (for old ones).
Our live letter for this Sunday serves as a commentary on the gospel reading. It’s about the future transformation of Christian believers. At this point in Philippians Paul is bringing to a close an energetic, even shrill passage aimed at false teachers in the Philippian church. Scholars are not unanimous in identifying these teachers, but it seems likely that they are Judaizers, i.e., people who claimed that Christians were bound to observe the demands of the Law of Moses. Paul spent most of his ministerial career combating this error.
This Sunday’s reading (in the longer form that the Lectionary gives us), at its start, gives the Philippians direction about their behavior. The same guidance is repeated at the reading’s end. In between we have two brief descriptions, one of the Judaizers and where their teaching leads, the other of the Christian way of life and its outcomes.
Paul starts off by telling the Philippians that they should imitate him and those who behave as he does. What might sound arrogant becomes understandable if we recall that Paul was convinced that Christ lived in him, and that this life of Christ came to him as a gift. In effect, he is telling them to be Christlike.
Next comes a description of those who are not Christlike. It pains Paul to acknowledge that, by setting up ends and means other than those set forth by Christ, they are being hostile to the redemption that Christ’s death won for us. Their concern for Jewish food rituals makes their stomach their god. They find glory in the mutilation of their bodies that comes with circumcision, something of which they should rather be ashamed. Their orientation is earthly and they are headed for destruction.
"But our citizenship is in heaven." We Christians are awaiting the final, transforming act of salvation in which our earthly bodies will share Christ’s glory, in which all creation will be united with God through the saving power of Christ.
Finally comes the conclusion in which Paul recalls his affection for the Philippians and repeats the direction he had given earlier: This is the way to be firm in the Lord.
What has all this to do with us? We may not be tempted to engage in the ritual practices of the Jews, but we do need to hear about transformation. Jesus isn’t finished with us yet. We still have something to look forward to. And that which we have to look forward to will not come when we want it, but when Christ’s plans reach fulfillment. Without doubt, we have to collaborate with those plans, but Christ is the principal agent of their execution and we have to wait for their realization until He is ready.
We’re not very good at waiting, especially when the waiting involves trust in Someone we can’t see and the expectation of outcomes that we don’t fully understand. We want what we want, and we want it in a hurry. Prepackaged food, condensed books, quick trips with drugs or alcohol, hasty sexual encounters without responsibility for long term results: it all reveals a common mind set, it’s all directed toward immediate satisfaction on terms set up by us.
Yet that’s not what the Lord has in mind for us. The Lord offers better plans, deeper fulfillment. He offers us a share in His risen life, the same life that he showed a sample of to His apostles in the transfiguration, the same life that Paul encouraged the Philippians to pursue.
Our collaboration in the implementation of those plans consists in receptivity, not the passive receptivity of the sponge, but the active receptivity of a child responding to the guidance of its parents as it matures. The Lord has taught us how to assimilate ever more deeply the life whose beginnings He gave us in baptism. That assimilation involves certain standards of behavior. It involves ongoing prayer. It involves nourishing Christ’s life in us by study and reflection. It involves participation in the sacraments. Above all it involves faith, the commitment of ourselves and our human existence to the life and love of the Lord Jesus.
There are plenty of distractions to our commitment, plenty of by-ways in which to stray, plenty of things that are immediately much more appealing than the future glory of heaven. That’s why we need to hear about transfiguration every year. That’s why we need Lent.
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Conversation Questions
What kinds of transformation do I look forward to?
How do I cooperate with God’s plans for me?
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