“This is my Son, the Beloved… Listen to him!” 2nd Sunday of Lent

LECTIO DIVINA
“This is my Son, the Beloved… Listen to him!” 2nd Sunday of Lent
Matthew 17:1-9
Reading
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and
led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before
them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.
Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then
Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here! ; if you wish, I will
make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”.
While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and
from the cloud a voice said: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well
pleased. Listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground
and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get
up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except
Jesus himself alone. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered
them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised
from the dead”.
Meditation
This time – addressing consecrated individuals who wish to be “Witnesses to the radical
approach of the Gospel” – to meditate on this passage let us allow ourselves to be guided
by a most authentic text: the Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata by John Paull II, soon
to be made a Saint. As you well know, it is the most important document of the
postconciliar Magisterium on consecrated life. So, by contemplating the glorious icon of
the Transfiguration, we will be meditating upon the characteristic stages of each vocation,
but right now, in a special way, on the vocation to consecrated life.
We can identify three precise stages:
- God's call
- Man's response
- The Mission.
Right from the first words of Vita Consecrata, John Paul II stated that consecrated life has
its roots not on the earth but in the very heart of God. It is 'a gift' of the Trinity to the Church
and to the world. Each of the Three Persons plays a part in this gift, and each of them
carries out a particular graced action in consecrated life. In particular, the Father provides
the call-election, the Son encourages our response to the call, the Spirit guides it in
mission.
1. "The icon of the Transfiguration reveals to consecrated individuals the Father first of
all, creator and giver of every good, who draws all creatures to Himself with a special love
and for a special mission: "This is my Son, the Beloved: Listen to him!"... This is the
meaning of the call to the consecrated life: it is an initiative coming wholly from the Father
who asks those whom he has chosen to respond with complete and exclusive devotion"
(VC 17). Here is the first thing that makes up consecrated life: call-election, God's
absolutely freely chosen initiative. This is the action of the Father especially, the one who
creates and 're-creates', who calls and supports throughout salvation's long history.
2. The response by the consecrated individual is shown, once again, in the icon of the
Transfiguration. This icon – Vita Consecrata – explains further " involves both "going up
the mountain" and "coming down the mountain". The disciples who have enjoyed this
intimacy with the Master, surrounded for a moment by the splendour 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" (VC 14). This is the second
characteristic feature of consecrated life: The response. In the Gospels, the response –
when affirmative as in the case of the disciples –translates into the sequela Christi (there
is also the negative response of the rich young man, who "went away sad": Mk 10:22). The
sequela is a demanding road to take, a laborious exodus: it is not by chance in Luke's
account of the Transfiguration that the topic of discussion between Jesus Moses and Elijah
is the exodus "which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem" (Lk 9:31). We need to
leave our country, like Abraham; or like the Apostles, we need to leave our nets, or better
everything, to follow Jesus. The exodus for the sequela, then. But the response in
consecrated life is more demanding yet. "In consecrated life", in fact, "it is not only a matter
of following Christ with one's whole heart, of loving him "more than father or mother, more
than son or daughter", for this is required of every disciple, but of living and expressing this
by by conforming one's whole existence to Christ in an all-encompassing commitment"(VC
16). Consecrated Life then joins to the sequela a more intense intimacy with Jesus. The
response that Jesus asks of consecrated individuals is "total commitment, one which
involves leaving everything behind in order to live at his side and follow him wherever he
goes" (VC 18).
3. Finally, the icon of the Transfiguration evokes the presence of the Third Person of the
Trinity, the one who sanctifies and sends in salvation history. The Exhortation text refers to
the "bright cloud" enveloping Jesus, Moses and Elijah, and comments: "A significant
spiritual interpretation og the Transfiguration sees the image of the Holy Spirit in this cloud.
Like the whole of Christian life, the call to the consecrated life is closely linked to the
working of the Holy Spirit" (VC 19). Here is the third characteristic feature of consecrated
life: the mission, and here the Holy Spirit is the key player. The Spirit, John Paul II goes
on, "far from removing from the life of humanity those whom the Father has called, puts
them at the service of their brothers and sisters in accordance with their particular state of
life, and inspires them to undertake special tasks in response to the needs of the Church
and the world, by means of the charisms proper to the various Institute" (VC 19).
For prayer and life
For our prayer we can say the two splendid prayers of John Paul II to the Trinity (VC 111)
and to Mary (VC 112).
Finally, let me propose three simple questions for revision of life.
* Consecrated life is a Trinitarian gift: do I nurture the "contemplative dimension" of my life,
to make this conviction ever more an active part of me?
* Consecrated life is a gradual conformation to Christ coming from our falling in love with
him and consequently having a radically different hierarchy of values: what in my life runs
counter to love for Christ? What do I still have to leave behind in order to follow him more
closely?
* Contemplative and apostolic life have to mix together in a profound synthesis, under the
banner of the imitation of Christ. Is my apostolic activity filled with contemplation and love?
Does my contemplation arrive at consistent gestures of charity and service?
+ Enrico dal Covolo

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