The Monks Of Norcia:

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March 7, 2012
Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

Below you'll find a homily from the Second Sunday of Lent, preached by Fr. Thomas, whose name's day is today!  Say a prayer for him after you read this.

Also, nearly 8,000 friends from all over the world have seen our documentary "Quaerere Deum" in the past week.  Not bad for a small monastery in Italy!  Can you help spread it around by posting it on Facebook or by tweeting it?

Finally, if you're interested in ordering a copy of the DVD, please let us know!
 

The Transfiguration: A Prefiguring of Eternal Glory
by Fr. Thomas Bolin, O.S.B.
Monastery of San Benedetto, Norcia, Italy

                Today’s Gospel passage describes the Transfiguration of the Lord.  We can understand this passage better if we look at it in its context.  Just before this, Jesus prophesied his passion, death, and resurrection, but Peter violently rejected this saying: “God forbid, Lord!  This shall never happen to you” (Mt 16:22).  Jesus responds, “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a hindrance to me:  for you are not from the side of God, but of men” (Mt 16:23).  After this exchange of words, Jesus explains to his disciples, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life would lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake would find it” (Mt 16:24-25).  And he continues, “For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done.  Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Mt 16:27-28).
 
                We see here that Jesus contrasts the human way of thinking with the divine way.  In the same way, in the book of the prophet Isaiah, God says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways” (Is 55:9).  The human way is to try to “save one’s own life”, while the divine way is to lose one’s life in this world.  We see the same thing signified in the miracle of the water changed into wine at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. Men offer the best wine first; Jesus however saved it for the end of the feast.  In the same way, man seeks happiness in this world, but God promises happiness in eternal life.  And it was the same for Jesus, that is, he attained his glory through his suffering and death in this world.  So, if we want to participate in his glory, we need to participate in his suffering as well.

            Before going on, let’s ask ourselves why Jesus says, “Amen I say to you, there are some of them that stand here, that shall not taste death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Mt 16:28)?  It seems that all of them died, and this did not happen.  But Matthew explains this immediately.  Today’s passage, as we just sang, begins “in illo tempore”, which means “at that time”.  In the original text of Matthew, though, the passage follows immediately after the aforementioned words, and says, “After six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John” etc.  In this way, St. Matthew explains that Peter, James, and John are those who have seen the Son of man come in his kingdom, namely when they saw him in the event of the transfiguration.  And why this vision?  It was a way to encourage them, to reinforce their faith, and to let them know that the glory to come is a reality and not a dream.

            So, if the Apostles themselves needed this encouragement, certainly we, too, will need it, if we are to follow Christ into eternal glory.  But we haven’t seen this vision personally.  What then?  We must pay attention to anything that reveals the divine presence in this world, to everything that indicates that future glory.  We can see such things in particular in the lives of the saints, in their merits and sufferings, in their miracles and visions, in everything that happened in their lives.  But we can also see the divine presence in our life, in all that is good and beautiful.  For this reason, St. Paul says in his letter to the Philippians: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8).  When we pay attention to these things, we see the presence of God and we begin to search always for more.

            Therefore, paying attention to these things, it will be possible to lose our life in this world for Christ, whether that means literally as a martyr, or offering our life for Christ with a vocation to the religious life or priesthood, or simply putting God first in our lives, without worrying about the consequences.  Thus, the grace of the Transfiguration is truly beautiful and can transfigure our life as well, rendering it an image of the life of Christ.  In today’s liturgy and in this season of Lent, let us pray, then, for this grace. (The Monks of Norcia: here)