Homily for February 16-17, 2008

Father Tom’s Homily
2nd Sunday of Lent
February 17, 2008

Perhaps you have noticed that the official Church has often been on an orthodoxy alert – measuring one’s place in the Kingdom of God by certain verbal formulas.
Granted, theological formulas are important, but correct thinking is not the faith.
Jesus said that God’s Kingdom is not for the clever and powerful, but for simple children.

We often think of our Christian faith as the adherence to a given set of beliefs and rules.
Today’s first reading gives us another image of faith. It is the story of the call of Abraham from the Book of Genesis (chap 12).
The first words spoken to Abraham by God were, “Go forth…” It was an invitation to become a pilgrim journeying to “the land I will show you.”

Abraham’s response is told us: “He went…” This is why Abraham is held up as the great model of faith among the many holy men and women of the Old Testament. Abraham’s response was echoed in the words of the young Mary who said, “Thy will be done.”
This is why Mary the Mother of Jesus is held up as the great model of faith in the New Testament. Both Abraham and Mary thus began their journeys of faith not realizing exactly where they were going. Except “to the land I will show you.”

Faith is best imagined as a journey to a land promised to us by God.
The letter to the Hebrews defines Abraham’s faith as a pilgrimage. “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called…not knowing where he was to go.” (Hebrews 11:8)
Do you recognize your faith as a journey to a promised land?

On the Appian Way, an ancient road leading south out of Rome, there is a small chapel, called the Quo Vadis Chapel. According to an ancient tradition, Peter, the leader of the Church in Rome, was quickly heading out of the city on this road to avoid certain death under an intense persecution by Emperor Nero. It was about the year 68.
The chapel marks the place where Peter encountered Jesus heading into the city. When Peter asked “Quo vadis?,” (“Where are you going?), Jesus answered “Into the city where I will be crucified with my people.”
Hearing this Peter turned around and went back into the city to be with his people, knowing that he faced certain martyrdom. He was crucified at the place where St. Peter’s basilica now stands.

Peter had never forgotten his experience on the Mountain of the Transfiguration many years before as described in today’s gospel. That happened at the beginning of Jesus’ journey towards his certain martyrdom on another distant hill outside the city wall of Jerusalem, call Mount Calvary.
The sight of Jesus’ face dazzling like the sun, was a prophecy of Jesus’ glorious resurrection from the death he was to suffer.

Peter realized that these two mountains express the meaning of Jesus’ passing over from his cruel death to his transfiguration as the Risen Lord. His glorious appearance in today’s gospel sheds light on his scandalous crucifixion he was to suffer a couple of months later.
Peter probably recalled this vision on the mountain of Jesus’ Transfiguration when he encountered the Lord on the Appian Way.
Yes, he realized, suffering and dying is part of our faith journey to glory. Peter was called to accept the Lord’s will that he die with his suffering people.
The Quo Vadis experience was like God’s words to Abraham, “Go forth.” So Peter turned around and headed for his crucifixion.

We cannot detour our own Mount Calvaries, our times of suffering and dying. But our journey does not stop there. The Risen Christ leads us beyond to the Mountain of Transfiguration.

Our basic catechism is this. Faith is a journey. A fundamental belief of this catechism is expressed in an ancient liturgical greeting, “The Lord is with you.” We do not travel on our faith journey alone. We are in the company of the Lord and we also have each other.

We are traveling to the place where our hearts wish to go. It is to be home. The homes we now have are only temporary, they are more like the tents of those on a great pilgrimage.
Our true home is the Father’s house. We will know that we have reached the home of our hearts’ desire when we are with God who loves us more than anyone one else.
That is the prophecy of today’s Transfiguration Story. It speaks of our true home, where in the arms of our Great Lover, we experience the deep, sacred intimacy of the Trinity.

Meanwhile we journey on toward our dying and rising. While we know that God’s design for this world is justice and peace, it is not what we see around us and within us.
But where sin abounds, however, God’s mercy is even more abundant.
In God’s Kingdom, the coin of the realm is mercy. Mercy received and mercy given.

Thomas Merton was one of the great spiritual writers of the 20th century. He was a Trappist monk. His funeral Mass in December 1968 at his monastery began with the words, “I have always overshadowed Jonas with My mercy….Have you had sight of Me, Jonas My Child? Mercy within mercy within mercy.”

Words from the conclusion of his famous book, The Seven Storey Mountain, was read to close the service. It was an account of his lifelong faith journey, naming the many significant places along the way.
“I shall lead you into the high places of my joy and you shall die in Me and find all things in My mercy which has created you for this end – and brought you from Prades to Bermuda to St. Antonin to Oakham to London to Cambridge to Rome to New York to Columbia to Corpus Christi to St. Bonaventure to the Cistercian Abbey of the poor men who labor in Gethsemani.
“That you may become the brother of God and learn to know the Christ.”

The faith journey, you see, is all about mercy. Like a fresh snowfall, God’s mercy covers all.