THE ASSURANCE OF FUTURE GLORY
Meditation
for Second Sunday of Lent
(Gen
15:5-12, 17-18; Phil 3:17-4:1; Lk 9:28-36)
My late father once said to me that no teenager says, ‘when
I grow up, I’ll be a drunkard’, and no one goes into marriage and says, ‘let me
marry so that I can divorce my wife/husband’. Then he said to me, look around
our village and see, these are rampant. We all envision good life; we make good
plans for the future, but when we look around, we might not see them! Abraham
was in such dilemma. He looked forward in faith to God’s promise that he would
be father of many sons and daughter, but looking around he had no single child!
Hence, he demanded from God ‘an assurance of faith’: “O Lord God, how am I to
know that I shall possess it?” Hope cannot be in vain; faith must have content.
God told Abraham to offer a sacrifice. He cut the meat in two,
and “behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these
pieces.” Thus, God made a covenant with Abraham; God and man ‘shared’ one
sacrifice. This one shared sacrifice between God and man was perfected in Jesus
Christ, who offered Himself on the Cross as God and man. In this one sacrifice,
God and man now has a single purpose; what God says shall come to pass in man,
and what man wished for shall be fulfilled by God. Therefore, in Jesus is the
ASSURANCE OF FAITH par excellence. In Him the good life we envision is assured.
“But we do see Jesus, who was for a short while made less than
the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He submitted to death.” On
the Cross we see all forms of human sufferings, including a failed vision of
life as He bowed His head and died… However, in the gospel of today, Jesus revealed
the glory behind the cross; the life behind His death! Peter, James and John
could not contend the power of the transfiguration, for they saw a glimpse of
the glory that is greater than any suffering. With the appearance of Moses and
Elijah, Jesus brings to fulfilment the blessings of the patriarchs and the
prophets.
A voice spoke from the cloud of glory, “This is my Son, my Chosen;
listen to Him!” The glory which faith assures is now revealed in Jesus. The
future we envision is now connected with our present life in Christ Jesus. Thus,
to envision a good life, a happy life, a happy marriage, a successful life,
etc, without Christ is to build without foundation and assurance. According to
the second reading, those who plan their lives around their selfish desires,
who ‘walk as enemies of the cross of Christ’, shall end in shame and
destruction. The grace of the transfiguration directs us to climb the mountain
of prayer where we offer our daily sacrifices with that of Jesus in whom the
glory we hope for is already present. The sweetness of His glory dilutes the
bitterness of our pains; His glory covers us and draws us on; it is the assurance
we need. Amen.
Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.
Sunday March 13th, 2022.
