Preached on the MS MAASDAM cruise ship (Holland America) on a cruise through the Panama Canal

The kingdom of heaven is like a tour through Antigua, Guatemala… For those of you who joined us on one of the tours through this Central American Country, I am sure you were amazed as I was by the holiness of the Guatemalan community as well inundated by vendors of every type of product sold on the market. Many of us had the opportunity to try Guatemalan cuisine and tour their famous Jade factory, viewing some of the most precious stones that money could buy. For those who like these types of tours, I believe that each person was able to experience an adventure particular to their tastes. For a person like me who goes on these cruises to get some rest and meet some nice people, this was an opportunity for me to stretch my legs and experience the faith life of a very holy people.

I do not know if this happened on your tours through the city, but on the tour I experienced, a couple of people got lost at the end of our outing. Suspending our return to the ship by about twenty minutes, our tour guide rummaged through the crowds in order to find our lost pilgrims who needed to be found. After a diligent search, our guide managed to bring the entire group together and the group of 34 that started the tour were able to return back to the ship safely. Guatemala might be a nice country by day, but we certainly would not want to leave behind a lost soul at night.

I thought about this image in light of today's gospel reading. As conscious adults, I would like to think that most of us would be able to reason our way through very difficult situations, as was the case that I just described to you. When we take a deep breath and put our lives back into perspective, then we will find what was lost.

However, I do not think we can say the same thing about children. In my experience with the culture of Central American children, I have noticed that when groups of kids travel, a leader will often tie a rope around the kids so that they are physically connected in some way in order that they do not become lost. I can only imagine what it would like if adults did the same thing - we would look like waddling ducks following the mother.

Without the aid of a rope, the most obvious way that a parent keeps a child by their side is to hold their hand. I have noticed that this is an instinctual response that a child offers their parents. When a kid wants to feel loved, if they are scared or if they are in need of protection, their natural tendency is to hold someone's hand so that they know they are not alone. This is the basic image of security and love is extremely important in light of the gospel reading we have been presented today. Every Second Sunday of Lent, the theme of our gospel reading focuses on the transfiguration of our Lord, the moment when Jesus climbs a mountain with his disciples and reveals himself to be the Christ, the beloved Son of our Father, the one who was sent to fulfill the law and the prophesies of the Old Testament. All three gospels tell us that on this mountain, on this peak which symbolizes the greatest location on earth to encounter the divine, both Moses and Elijah appeared, Moses representing the law of the faith and Elijah representing prophetic discourse. The gospels essentially tell us that Jesus is the new law and the new prophet, the one who fulfills all that the law and the prophets have discussed from the past and makes real in the present.

Where the three gospels differ significantly concerns the disposition of the three disciples to whom the Lord reveals himself. The Gospel of Mark portrays the disciples as clueless to the meaning of this Transfiguration, a theme that weaves itself throughout the entire Markan text. The Gospel of Luke presents the disciples as having some type of divine, visionary dream from which the Lord awakens them. What the gospel of Matthew does, in contradistinction to the gospels of Mark and Luke, is to portray the disciples as fully awake and fully cognizant of the divine presence that they have encountered, and as a result, becoming scared out of their minds from what they encountered.

I don't think that this response is so unique from the type of response any one of us would have. Whenever any of us encounter something that is devastating or beatific, we all begin to shake and tremble. It amazes me that people in this world try to beat their chests and cry out with great bravado about their strength and resolve they have in the world, a resolve I interpret in the Catholic faith as some type of "Rambo theology." It amazes me how people believe that they can endure anything that is set before them, from small events in the world like a test or an important presentation at work to something much more serious such as a tsunami or some other type of natural disaster or unnatural war. The fact is, no matter how much we thump our chests concerning our strength in front of the divine, the presence of God that is revealed before us should, and most likely will, scare the life out of us. What our beloved Lord provides for us is the means by which we may encounter the divine face-to-face without being afraid. It is the Lord who takes us by the hand and guides us to safety, the Lord who offers us the hand of love so that we can bond with him during good times and in bad. And it is our Lord who touched the disciples in today's gospel and gently instructed them not to be fearful, for with the Lord by their side they would be safe and sound; they would not fear the Lord for the Lord is the one who guides them to the place where they needed to go.

Two thousand years later, we realize that when we hold the hand of the Lord, it is He would guides us to the through the desert of temptation in this Season of Lent and up the mountain of faith. It is our Lord that guides us to the woman at the well and to the tomb of Lazarus. It is the Lord who guides us to altar and through the cross and it is the Lord that tells us not to fear, for through the Lord's guidance that we find hope in the everlasting life rather than the fear we experience with the unknown that awaits us in the world yet to come.

As I reflected on the story of this transfigured Lord in Matthew's Gospel, I recalled the words of our Holy Father, who wrote about this event in an Apostolic Exhortation from 1986 entitled, "The Consecrated Life" (Vita Consacrata). In this document, he instructs us that this moment of the Transfiguration was given to the disciples to prepare them for the sufferings and difficulties which they were to face in their ministry. The Holy Father writes that this image of Christ transfigured provided the disciples with enough strength to continue the difficult ministry that awaited them, as well as us in today's society. The only way to encounter and overcome these difficulties result from our dependence on God and our ability to reach out to the Lord in order to allow our Lord to guide us through these difficulties. It is these words of our Holy Father with which I wish to conclude today's homily. Our Holy Father writes,

… the disciples who have enjoyed this intimacy with the Master, surrounded for a moment by the splendor of the Trinitarian life and of the communion of saints, and as it were caught up in the horizon of eternity, are immediately brought back to daily reality, where they see "Jesus only," in the lowliness of his human nature, and are invited to return to the valley, to share with him the toil of God's plan and to set off courageously on the way of the cross.

… The event of the Transfiguration marks a decisive moment in the ministry of Jesus. It is a revelatory event which strengthens the faith in the disciples' hearts, prepares them for the tragedy of the cross and prefigures the glory of the resurrection. This mystery is constantly relived by the Church, the people on its way to the eschatological encounter with its Lord.

May we find the presence of the divine spirit, revealed in our hearts, so that we may find the strength to encounter the challenges that await us, both in the season of Lent and within our life's journey. This is the manner in which the Lord wishes to hold our hand to show us we are loved and are safe. And this is our prayer.

… los discípulos que han gozado de la intimidad del Maestro, envueltos momentáneamente por el esplendor de la vida trinitaria y de la comunión de los santos, como arrebatados en el horizonte de la eternidad, vuelven de repente a la realidad cotidiana, donde no ven más que a "Jesús solo" en la humildad de la naturaleza humana, y son invitados a descender para vivir con Él las exigencias del designio de Dios y emprender con valor el camino de la cruz.

… El episodio de la Transfiguración marca un momento decisivo en el ministerio de Jesús. Es un acontecimiento de revelación que consolida la fe en el corazón de los discípulos, les prepara al drama de la Cruz y anticipa la gloria de la resurrección. Este misterio es vivido continuamente por la Iglesia, pueblo en camino hacia el encuentro escatológico con su Señor.