Genesis 12.1-4a | 2 Timothy 1.8b-10 | Matthew 17.1-9

*HOMILY* [03/01/26]

(Fr. Kleber Luiz Cardoso, css)


We begin the second week of Lent with Mother Church.

Today, the evangelist Matthew speaks to us of the Transfiguration of the Lord (which is the fourth luminous mystery of the Holy Rosary, prayed on Thursdays). The Transfiguration of the Lord has its liturgical feast on August 6th.

On a high mountain (Mount Tabor), were Jesus, Peter, James, and John. Jesus' face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light. And Moses and Elijah appeared, talking with Jesus.

Peter offered to make a tent for each of the three. And, at that moment, a luminous cloud came and covered them with its shadow.

A voice was heard from the cloud saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!" The disciples were terrified and fell face down to the ground. But Jesus encouraged them to get up. Then the disciples saw no one else except Jesus alone. They were commanded by Jesus not to tell anyone about the vision until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

The mountain represented closeness to God, who is in Heaven. The white robes represented the divine glory of Jesus. The two men represented the Law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah), that is, the First Testament, which pointed to Jesus, the New Testament, to Whom one must listen. The tent represented the human temptation to escape the responsibilities of the present to remain in spiritual ecstasy. The cloud represented the supernatural nature of divine revelation. And the voice represented God the Father, confirming that Jesus was the Messiah.

The Transfiguration points, on the one hand, to the glory of Jesus as the only Son of God the Father (white robes) and, on the other hand, to His passion and crucifixion (foreseen in the First Testament).

This Lent, let us accept Jesus' invitation to ascend the mountain with Him, through prayer, to understand the magnitude of the mystery of His divinity and His passion, death, and resurrection. Let us accept the invitation to listen more deeply to Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, that is, to the Scriptures in their entirety. Let us overcome the temptation to escape reality in an intimate and sterile religiosity. Let us dedicate our lives to the good of our neighbor so that we may pass from death to life with Christ.

Today the author of the book of Genesis speaks to us of the Lord's call to the patriarch Abram.

He lived in the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, in Mesopotamia, with his wife Sarai, around 2000 BC.

When He revealed Himself to the patriarch, the Lord commanded Abram to depart for the land of Canaan, with the promise that a great people would arise from him. The Lord would bless the patriarch and magnify his name, which would be a source of blessing for all the families of the earth. So Abram obeyed the Lord and departed.

This Lent, let us heed the Lord's call and learn from Abram to obey Him, for He desires that we walk the path of abandoning sin to possessing His promise of abundant life in Christ. There are still many families on earth who have not had access to divine salvation, waiting to be freed from the slavery of sin. We need to go to them urgently.

Today the apostle Paul speaks to us in his second letter to Timothy about God's call with a holy vocation.

Timothy, instructed in the faith by Paul, became bishop of the church of Ephesus. The apostle exhorted the bishop to suffer with him for the Gospel, strengthened by the power of God, in obedience to the divine call.

Paul reminded Timothy that the vocation was not human merit, but an initiative of God's grace manifested in Christ.

According to the apostle, Christ not only destroyed death, but also made life and immortality shine through the Gospel.

Christ, in fulfilling His saving mission, suffered, passing through death on the Cross. The apostles, too, obeying the divine call, suffered while evangelizing. Living the Christian faith, as a response to our holy vocation, has a dimension of martyrdom, for there is no shortage of closed hearts that persecute those who proclaim the Gospel.

Let us be courageous! Let us not be afraid to live our calling. The last word does not belong to death, but to the God of Life.

Local: Praia Grande - SP, Brasil

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