Second Sunday in Lent [C]
Genesis 15:5-12,17-18 — Philippians
3:14—4:1 — Luke 9:28-36
February 28, 2010
Scripture readings from Holy Mass:
Verse for Recollection throughout the Day:
“This is my
chosen Son; /
listen to
him.”
[Luke 9:35]
Reflection:
At the age of
seventy-five, Saint Augustine lay on his deathbed in a small town in northern
Africa. This man—who had early in life lived
with a mistress for fifteen years, and fathered a son out of wedlock—this man, who
had not been baptized until the age of thirty-three... knew that his
life on this earth was drawing to a close…
From his deathbed,
Saint Augustine saw his own town collapsing. There was little to glory in. The forces of heretics and barbarians, which
he had battled every year he was a bishop, had now united and were at
his doorstep: a tribe of barbarians who
had been converted over to heresy had traveled down through Spain, into Africa,
and then along the northern shore of the continent, pillaging towns as they
went.
This barbarian
tribe reached St. Augustine’s town and destroyed it as well. All the work that he had done as bishop fell
apart before his eyes, as he saw the monasteries he had founded
destroyed, the priests he had instructed and ordained murdered, and the churches
he had built and preached in overthrown, and occupied by heretics.
What do you imagine
that Saint Augustine thought to himself as he lay on his deathbed and
saw all this happening? What do you
imagine he said in his prayer to the Lord?
Most likely, they
spoke about the same thing that the Lord spoke with Moses and Elijah about in
today’s Gospel reading: as Luke puts it,
they spoke about… Jesus’ passage which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem. This is the passage that the Lord will
make during Holy Week, at the end of Lent.
In fact, the goal of Lent is to make this passage our own.
X X X
Most of the people who
spent time with Jesus during the three years of His public ministry never
figured out what Jesus meant to say through His preaching. Many of these disciples had completely different
ideas of what Jesus was trying to accomplish on this earth. They all knew He was someone important, and
powerful. They all knew, to use a modern
phrase, that He was someone who was… “headed places”. But what those places were… they didn’t
agree about.
When Jesus suffered
and died on the Cross, most of His disciples took the Cross as a sign of Jesus’
failure. He was a failure as a preacher,
a failure as a religious organizer, and—frankly—He was a failure as a
human being.
In the light of
this, ask yourself: what is it that actually
makes a human life either a success, or a failure?
As it turned out,
Jesus ended up a failure in the eyes of both these disciples and
the Jewish officials. No one, it seemed,
could look at the Cross and see Jesus as a success in life.
X X X
And so, my questions to you on this Second Sunday
in Lent are: do you bear a cross in
life? Is this cross one that you bear because
you are a Christian? In other words, if
you were not a follower of Jesus, would you be free to put down this
cross? Are you tempted to lay
down your cross, and walk on another path through life?
If so, Jesus calls
you not to measure your life in earthly terms. Recognize that there is, in fact, only one
Cross. You are not in fact, a follower
of Jesus: rather, you live as a
Christian within Jesus. You live as
within Him as a member of His Mystical Body.
And any cross that you bear because of Him, is a share in Jesus’ Cross,
the one true Cross: the Cross of Truth.
Do not measure your
life as successful in measures of wealth, power and pleasure. Measure the success of your life only
according to the willingness—that is to say, the love—with which
you bear the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Reflection Questions:
Do I sometime imagine that I am carrying my cross alone? How
can I deepen my understanding that my cross is a share in the One True Cross?
Intentions that you
are asked to pray for:
·
a special intention by V.
·
a special intention of Father Hoisington
You are invited to submit your own
petitions to Father Hoisington by means of the Reflections Facebook group, his Facebook page, or to his email address: hoisingtont@cdowk.org. You
may either give a brief description of your intention, or simply list “a
special intention”, after which your first initial would be listed. These intentions will be prayed for until
Easter, unless you indicate a specific date for prayers to end for your
intention.
