'May we all have the courage to live a Lent that will usher in true life for the world.' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Lent, Year C

 

Transfiguration

Blessed Fra Angelico [Web Gallery of Art]

Readiings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 9:28-36 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)  

Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Starry Night 

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

[The Lord] brought [Abram] outside and said, “Look towards heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be” (Genesis 15:5; First Reading).

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I am preparing this under the shadow of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. That shadow covers the whole world. Today's gospel tells us: As [Peter] was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. But there are breaks in that dark cloud where we can catch a glimpse of God's loving presence such as the story of Hassan Al-Khalaf, the 11-year-old boy who travelled on his own on a journey of 1,000 kms to safety in Slovakia where he was welcomed warmly. Another glimpse of God's loving presence is the wedding of a young couple in the middle of the invasion, Yaryna and Sviatoslav trusting in God with hope for the future. These two events are for me 'Transfiguration moments', two of many that we can glimpse in this war. 

Another such 'Transfiguration moment' is the story below. I have used it before because it reveals for me God's presence in the midst of so much that could lead us to despair.

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By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity. 

The deacon or priest says these words quietly as he pours wine and a little water into the chalice during the Offertory of the Mass. In today's gospel Jesus, who humbled himself to share in our humanity, allowed Peter, James and John to get a glimpse of his divinity. Moses and Elijah spoke of what Jesus was to accomplish at Jerusalem. That was not only his death but his Resurrection and glorification.

Jesus calls us to share in his Resurrection and glorification, to share in the divinity that is his.

We don't share in the Resurrection, glorification and divinity of Jesus Christ only after death but also, as Peter, James and John did in the Transfiguration, in this life when we experience the gift of God's love in events that can transform us here and now.

My Australian fellow Columban, Fr Warren Kinne, who worked in Mindanao, Philippines, for a long time before spending many years in China, tells the story of Xiao Ai, who was in her early days a 'non-person'. But through the love and care of strangers, Chinese and foreign, she now has possibilities open to her that she never could have imagined. And Father Warren, who has some Chinese ancestry, sees her story as encapsulating in some ways the meaning of Lent and Easter. Here's how he tells it. It's taken from the January-February 2013 issue of MISYONonline.com, the Columban online magazine I used to edit in the Philippines. It is also on the website of the Columbans in Australia and New Zealand. 

Xiao Ai

Courage to Live a Lent

by Fr Warren Kinne

Before the great Feast of Easter when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Church goes through a period of preparation by prayer and fasting. We call this Lent. In the northern hemisphere, where Christianity started, it was celebrated in spring and slowly, throughout that time, the dead of winter burst forth into the luxuriance of new growth, signifying life and the resurrection.

Xiao Ai is a young friend of mine. She was left at the steps of a convent about 2004 or 2005 in a remote village of Shan Xi Province, China. She was born with clubbed feet and abandoned. Xiao was brought to Shanghai where a group of foreigners provided money and logistical support for multiple operations.

During that period she was taken in by a family who took great care of her and eventually wanted to adopt her as their own. However there were many hurdles to be overcome. Xiao Ai did not have any identification as the convent was not a registered orphanage and so was not in a position to register her. Indeed people could only guess at her actual birth date. She was really a ‘non-person’.

After years of effort Xiao Ai has had all her paperwork completed and she now has a Chinese passport that will allow her to travel with her adopted family to Singapore. What happiness followed the long and anxious wait where a wonderful outcome was hoped for rather than expected.

Xiao Ai and Fr Warren Kinne

For the Lord takes delight in his people 
(Psalm 149:4, Grail translation)

Xiao’s struggle to me is a Lenten story that has become an Easter story; a fast that turned into a feast; a long journey in a desert that ended in freedom; a near death that heralded a resurrection, a new life.

Shanghai is a city of tinsel and glitter. Most people recognize the image of its iconic buildings and towering structures along the Huang Pu River. There are myriad neon signs and a ‘yuppie’ lifestyle for many expatriates who ride the wave of economic frenzy. But it has its under-belly.

The construction of this city has been done on the backs of migrant workers - currently seven million - who have travelled to the city to find work. They left their villages and often their families in order to make a little money on construction sites and in restaurants and factories.

These people do not have residency permits in Shanghai and so they cannot settle down where they work. Often they leave their children back in the village in the care of grandparents and may only get home once a year – during the Chinese New Year – to see how the family is going.

Children can resent their absence and may not appreciate the sacrifice of the parent or parents in order to better the whole family economically.

In the cities where they work they do not have equal access to medical and educational opportunities that are open to the local population.

Their sacrifice is a sort of ‘Lent’ lived in the hope of a better future for their family. Like Xiao Ai’s adopting parents or the migrant parents, they in fact live the admonition of God in Isaiah 58: 6-7: Is not this the fast that I choose: to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him. [Editor's note: This is what is happening in Ukraine's neighbouring countries right no especialy in Poland.]

God brought the slaves out of the land of Egypt where they had made bricks for the ostentatious buildings of the Pharaohs. This same God made a covenant with them and subsequently with us that we might treat each other differently because in one way or another we have all been freed. The worship of the market and the God of money has caused many to suffer. May we all have the courage to live a Lent that will usher in true life for the world.

Xiao Ai in 2016

Just the other day Fr Kinne told me in an email that Xiao Ai is doing well in Singapore. He had been speaking to her mother the day before.

With Fr Kinne in 2016

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Beauty in Eastern Catholicism

St George's Cathedral, Lviv

Mother church of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

[Wikipedia; photo]

About two-thirds of Ukraine's population of more than 41 million (pre-invasion) are Orthodox Christians. Eleven per cent of the people are Catholics, most of them members of the Greek Ukrainian Catholic Church, in full communion Rome. Most of the Catholics live in the west of the country and Lviv is a predominantly Catholic city.

There are more than twenty Eastern Catholic churches in full communion with Rome, with their origins in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and India.

Traditional Latin Mass

Second Sunday in Lent

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 03-13-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7.  Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9.

Transfiguration of Christ

Paolo Veronese [Web Gallery of Art]