Second Sunday in Lent – Cycle C
Last Sunday we accompanied Jesus to the mount of Temptations, where he was tempted by the devil. We remain there with him for these forty days of Lent – striving to listen to the same Word of God which gives us the power to overcome Satan and all his wiles with the power of Christ in our midst.
Today we travel with Christ and the three apostles to Mount Tabor. The gospels tell us that Jesus frequently went up to the mountains to pray. This is the only occasion where he brings any of the disciples with him. At one point the disciples asked Jesus; “Lord, teach us how to pray as John taught his disciples.” At that time Jesus taught them the Lord’s Prayer. This time, however, he exposes the three apostles to His own prayer. He shows them – and also us – what his prayer consists in. It is a time when he is transported back to that world from which he came – the world of the Father and also the prophets of old. It is they who reveal to him what his mission will entail and how he is to carry it out with the help of the Father.
Jesus shows us that all prayer is to transport us also into that world from which he came. We are confronted by the presence of the Father and all the Saints of old. St. Benedict reminds us of this fact when he tells us that when we pray the Divine Office in choir, we do so “in the presence of the angels”. This shows us that all prayer is to be an entrance into that world from which we also have come – the world of the Father who begets us in the image of his own Son Jesus Christ.
Do we realize that when we enter into the church to pray, whether for the Divine office or for our personal prayer, we are entering with Jesus on Mount Tabor, where we are confronted not only by the angels, but by the Triune God, who loves us with an infinite love. We enter into the realm of the very prayer of Jesus where we draw the strength we need in order to live as his true children.
The first reading shows us Abraham who also ascends a mountain to pray and is confronted by the living God who casts him into a deep state of prayer, in which God reveals to him his promise to be with him in the future. In the second reading Paul tells us of how in his prayer also God reveals to him that “our commonwealth is in heaven” and that we are to await our Savior Jesus Christ, “who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body”. Here again we are given a share in that very prayer of Jesus. “And as he was praying the appearance of his countenance was altered, .and his clothing became dazzling white”. Prayer reveals his true nature – but also our true nature. And he shows us that the way we are to enter into this realm of reality is through our prayer, at one with the prayer of Jesus.
The life of every Christian, but particularly the life of every monk, is a call to enter into the very same prayer of Jesus. It is there that we are to discover the extent to which we are called to share in the very life of Jesus Christ and to be one with His prayer to the Father. We are called to live our whole life at one with Him and to draw from Him the strength that we need to truly live even now in that commonwealth which is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.