Today is the Second Sunday of Lent.
(After ten days how is Lent going?)
The Gospel passage for today is the Transfiguration, taken from Matthew 17:1-9 (also found in Mark 9:2-14 and Luke 9:28-36). Part of its relevance for us seems to be in the need we have to see the beauty and truth of Christ, to learn about God and to Know God through Christ in a knowledge that it is given to us by God as follow Christ. His clothing was brighter than any fuller could make it, the knowledge deeper than any university could give. Jesus calls up to come apart with him for a wee while and he will make himself known to us. It may not be as spectacular as the scene on Mt Tabor, but our hearts and minds will also be shown that it is wonderful to be with Christ.
As it happens Pope John Paul II uses this passage in his Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrated on the Religious Life in which he proposes the Transfiguration as the evangelical underpinning of the Religious Life. This is a departure from the more usual choice of the pericope of the calling of the rich young man (Matt 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30) which he uses elsewhere, for example in Redemptionis Donum. Interesting… to explored another day.