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WORD FOR MISSION Every week CIAM offers
to lay, religious people and priests an itinerary of reflections on the
Sunday Liturgy in a missionary prespective. These are elements for a
missionary meditation, individual or in community, on the Word of God ,
which constantly and surprisingly continues to enlighten, strengthen
and sustain the missionary journey of the Church, for the life of the
World
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From the transfigured
face to
the disfigured faces
Lent Sunday II Year B - 12.03.2006
Reflections Mark's basic question is: "Who is Jesus?" The answer lies at the core of his Gospel, with the Transfiguration. The key to the reading of the Gospel passage and other biblical and liturgical texts today can be found in the alternative Entrance Antiphon: "My heart has prompted me to seek your face. Lord, do not hide from me." The answer to this heartfelt plea comes from the high mountain, well away from view ("alone, by themselves"!). Here Jesus was transfigured in the presence of three selected disciples: "his clothes became dazzlingly white, whiter than any earthly bleacher could make them". Mark stresses the luminous splendour that is a visible manifestation of the identity of Jesus, the colour white being a sign of God's world and of festive joy. The light is not from outside, but emanates from within the personof Jesus. In his parallel text, Luke highlights the fact that Jesus went up the mountain to pray, and as he was praying the aspect of his face was changed (cf Lk.9:28-29). From his special relationship with the Father, Jesus emerges dynamically transformed: his full identification with the Father shines in his face.
The process of interior transformation is the same for Christ and for the apostle: prayer, which is a living process of listening and dialogue, in humble abandonment to God. It is able to transform the life of the believer and the missionary. Indeed, contemplation and prayer is the founding experience of mission. This was Peter's own experience: he is sure he is not following “cleverly invented myths”, having been one of the three eye-witnesses ... “when we were with him on the holy mountain”. (2Pt 1:16,18). Even though confused and frightened (v.6), Peter would have preferred to avoid the mysterious ‘exodus’ to Jerusalem that Jesus was talking about with Moses and Elijah (Lk.9:31). He would have stopped time and kept the wonderful coming of the Kingdom (v.5) like a perpetual "feast of tabernacles" (Zc.14:16-18). But, having overcome the crisis of the Passion, this experience of closeness to the Master and of listening to the Beloved son of the Father (v.7) confirmed Peter in his vocation and commitment to a courageous mission of proclamation, right up to martyrdom.
Peter had to set aside his own thought-patterns and enter into the way God thinks (Mt.16:23). Abraham had to do the same: this second Sunday of Lent gives us another of his emblematic experiences (the call, the alliance, his son Isaac): here he learns that he must not follow the practice of human sacrifice, which is quite common among the peoples living round him (Moabites, Ammonites, etc.) The message is clear in the first Reading: "The first lesson, evident and direct, is that the God of Israel rejects the sacrifice of children as an abominable crime. On of the characteristics of idols is always to demand human sacrifices. But the God of Israel, by stopping Abraham's arm as he was about to strike his son, showed that he is the Lord who loves life (Wis.11:26), the one who gives all life (Acts 17:25) and does not wish the death of anyone (Ez.18:32)" (F. Armellini). Analysing the episode of the sacrifice of Isaac with the criteria of missionary inculturation brings out clearly the power of the Word of God that judges, corrects and purifices the customs of peoples.
The transfigured face of Jesus is a prelude to what he will be after the Resurrection: his definitive reality, which is promised to us too. "That body which is transfigured before the astonished gaze of the aposles is the body of Christ our brother, but also our bidy called to glory; the light that shines round him is and will be our share of the inheritance and the splendour. We are called to share in such great glory because we 'share the divine nature' (2Pt.1:4). An incomparable destiny." These words were written by Pope Paul V, for the message he was to have delivered at the Angelus of Sunday 6th August 1978, Feast of the Transfiguration.
In this call to life and to glory the dignity of every human person has its greatest basis and foundation. It should not be disfigured for any reason. (*) Sadly, the face of Jesus is disfigured in countless human faces, as the message of the Latin-American Bishops affirmed from Puebla (Mexico, 1979). "This situation of generalised extreme takes on very concrete features in real life, and we must recognise the features of the suffering Christ in them, of the Lord that questions and challenges us" (cf.n.31). The document goes on to list a sequence of disfigurement: the faces of children who are sick, abandoned, exploited; the faces of young people who are led astray and exploited; the faces of native and Afro-american populations who are marginalised; the faces of campesinos equally neglected and exploited; the faces of ill-paid workers and of others who are sacked or unemployed; the faces of old people neglected and cast out by family and society (cf. Puebla, 32-43). The list could go on and on, with the situations most of us know about in our own areas. They are all urgent appeals to the consciences of reponsible authorities and of the Missionaries of the Gospel of Jesus.
The Pope's words (commenting on the look of pity on Jesus' face as he considers the crowds - see Mt.9:36) (*) “In the face of the terrible challenge of poverty afflicting so much of the world’s population, indifference and self-centered isolation stand in stark contrast to the “gaze” of Christ. Fasting and almsgiving, which, together with prayer, the Church proposes in a special way during the Lenten Season, are suitable means for us to become conformed to this “gaze”. The examples of the saints and the long history of the Church’s missionary activity provide invaluable indications of the most effective ways to support development”. BenedictXVI Message for Lent, 2006
In the footsteps of missionaries - 12/3: St. Luigi Orione (1872-1940), priest and founder of the "Little Work of Divine Providence" and of Institutes of Religious. - 15/3: St. Louise de Marillac (1591-1660), widow and, with St. Vincent de Paul, foundress of the Daughters of Charity. - 15/3: The 175th anniversary of the Birth of St. Daniel Comboni (1331-1881) at Limone on Lake Garda. He was the first Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa. - 15/3: Bl. Artémides Zatti (1880-1951), a Salesian, and medical missionary in Patagonia (Argentina). - 17/3: St. Patrick (385-461), Bishop of Armagh, Patron of Ireland, where he was a missionary. - 18/3: St. Cyril (+386), Bishop of Jerusalem, well known for his catechesis. He was often persecuted by the Arians. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Edited by Fr. Romeo Ballan, mcci - Former Director of CIAM, Rome Website: www.ciam.org “Word for the Mission” ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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