Homily Lent 2 – (Year A) – March 8, 2020GN 12:1-4A; PS 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22; 2 TM 1:8B-10 MT 17:1-9

St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Rules of Discernment of Spirits, besides being a key part of the Church’s treasure trove of spiritual gems, are also a work of genius. Of course, the actual genius is God, who inspired Ignatius to pay close attention to the spiritual movements in his own soul, in order to receive the good movements and to reject the bad.

One of the Ignatian Rules in particular—Rule 10—provides an excellent framework to understand these otherwise odd words that Jesus spoke in today’s Gospel, after giving his three most trusted disciples a glimpse of his full, Transfigured glory on the mountaintop:

As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” (Mt 17:9)

This is one of a handful of Gospel instances where Jesus’ marketing strategy could be called into question. After all, if Jesus wanted to bring as many souls as possible into his Father’s Kingdom, why not proclaim the fullness of his glory clearly, instead of leaving it to chance with the fickle faith of fallen human beings?

They key word here is “fallen”. Precisely because we’re fallen, we tend to gloss over the essential connection between suffering and redemption in the Christian life, because we naturally want to avoid suffering. And that is where Ignatius’ Rule 10 comes into play.

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Here’s how Rule 10 reads:

...let the one who is in consolation think how he will conduct himself in the desolation which will come after, taking new strength for that time.

Here we need to understand what Ignatius means by spiritual consolation and spiritual desolation.

Ignatius defines spiritual consolation as:

“[The] interior movement...caused in the soul, through which the soul comes to be inflamed with love of its Creator and Lord, and, consequently when it can love no created thing on the face of the earth itself, but only in the Creator of them all. Likewise when it sheds tears that move to love of its Lord, whether out of sorrow for one’s sins or for the passion of Christ our Lord, or because of other things directly ordered to His service and praise. Finally, I call consolation every increase of hope, faith and charity, and all interior joy that calls and attracts to heavenly things and to the salvation of one’s soul, quieting it and giving it peace in its Creator and Lord. (Rule 3)

Conversely, Ignatius defines spiritual desolation as:

“[A]ll the contrary of [consolation], such as darkness of soul, disturbance in it, movement to low and earthly things, disquiet from various agitations and temptations, moving to lack of confidence, without hope, without love, finding oneself totally slothful, tepid, sad and as if separated from one’s Creator and Lord. (Rule 4)

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So, in Rule 10, Ignatius counsels us to take full advantage of those times of closeness and intimacy with God—of consolation—like Peter, James and John experienced on the mountaintop—to “store up” grace for future experiences of suffering—of desolation—that are a regular part of the spiritual life.

If we consider what preceded and what followed the Transfiguration in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ intention becomes clearer. Immediately prior to the account of the Transfiguration, we read:

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (Mt 16:21-23)

This was Jesus’ first warning to his closest allies that his mission would result in his own horrific suffering and death...but that he would be raised from the dead, in order to conquer death and reopen the gates of Paradise that had been slammed shut by the Sin of Adam and Eve.

Peter—who could not process the prospect of Jesus impending Passion—especially after he had only a short time before correctly identified Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (cf. Mt 16:16)—tried to talk Jesus out of his suffering, only to be rebuked sharply by Jesus for having fallen under Satan’s influence.

After that, Jesus revealed that suffering was the price of discipleship:

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Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct. Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. (Mt 16:24-28)

Jesus told his followers that it would cost a lot—and even cost some of them everything—to follow him, but that some would also have a preview of the glory awaiting Jesus. Jesus then manifested his divinity to Peter, James and John in the Transfiguration, fulfilling his promise that some would see the Son of Man as he really is before they died.

Upon descending the mountain following the vision, they immediately encountered the Devil again—this time not in Peter’s prideful impetuousness—but, instead, in a boy the Devil possessed. After Jesus cast the demon out of the boy, he told all of his disciples a second time:

The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were overwhelmed with grief. (Mt 17:22-23)

Jesus then taught extensively on the requirements of discipleship as he and his followers continued the journey toward Jerusalem. There, in Jerusalem, the predictions of his Passion would be fulfilled. Jesus explained how a disciple must live in order to attain salvation. But he

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did not sugarcoat the suffering that genuine disciples must experience.

In the midst, then, of his startling statements about suffering, Jesusinserted the consoling experience of the Transfiguration into the sequence of events so that, when the suffering later became nearly unbearable to Peter, James, John and the other Apostles, they would have the memory of his words—and the promise of the Transfiguration—to give them hope in seemingly hopeless circumstances.

The last thing Jesus wanted to do, then, was to give his followers the false hope of an automatic glory that did not first pass through the crucible of suffering. Fallen human nature being what it is, there is a disordered desire for a painless Christianity that causes many Christians to take a very un-Biblical approach to discipleship and to fall away at the first sign of trouble.

This distorted view of discipleship can best be summed up by those Christians who say they are an “Easter people”, not a “Good Friday” people. In other words, that Christians should “think positive”— focusing only on the glory and benefits of the Resurrection—and not getting bogged down in all the “negative” stuff, like suffering.

That’s a nice sentiment, but utterly contrary to Jesus’ own teaching and example.

This attitude comes into sharp focus in the Protestant objection to that distinctively Catholic symbol—the Crucifix. Here we distinguish between a Crucifix—a cross with the Lord’s body still nailed to it—and a bare cross.

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Some Protestants accuse Catholics of “re-crucifying” Christ by “keeping him on the Cross” with our Crucifixes.

But when we connect it all back to the sequence of events of Matthew’s Gospel, we see a parallel between a Crucifix and Jesus’ admonition to his disciples on the way down the mountain.

Jesus knew that it was too early to talk about the glory, because the suffering had to come first.

Jesus’ words were meant to keep his disciples steady—to avoid getting so focused on glory that they would be scared off when the suffering became real. With the exception of St. John, all the Apostles did abandon Jesus—at the time Jesus most needed the support of his friends—both because of human fear, and because they had forgotten Jesus’ repeated warning that his Passion—in all its gruesome manifestations—was part of his Father’s plan.

The Crucifix in our time, serves a similar purpose for us, that Jesus’ warning to Peter, James and John was meant to serve for them.

Jesus does promise a glorious eternity for those of us who follow him faithfully—through the joys and sorrows, the triumphs and the tribulations that genuine discipleship entails.

But the Crucifix keeps us grounded in reality, free from the temptation to look at our Christian life exclusively through “rose colored glasses”, only to be so rattled by the reality of Christian suffering that we fall away at the first sign of adversity.

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And, in answer to the charge that focus on suffering is overly “negative” and that we are an “Easter people”—which we are!—the Crucifix offers an additional benefit.

It reminds us not only to take seriously Jesus’ admonition to Peter, James and John in today’s Gospel passage. It also reminds us of the extremely consoling words that Jesus spoke at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, just before he Ascended into heaven:

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Mt 28:16-20)

Jesus didn’t just suffer for us at some distant point in history and “that was that”. No, he suffers with us today, something that the Crucifix also encourages us to recall.

Jesus was disfigured on the Cross. The Transfiguration was a sneak preview of his “transition” from gore to glory. Glorification in the afterlife is also our destiny, our inheritance as adopted sons and daughters of God, Our Father, by virtue of our Baptism.

Jesus knows us. He knows that we don’t want to suffer. He didn’t either as we recall from these words of his in the Garden of Gethsemane:

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Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go yonder and pray.” And taking with him Peter... [James and John], he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Mt 26:36-39)

Jesus clearly wanted to avoid suffering, if possible. That’s how we know he was fully human!

But his extraordinary commitment to his Father’s will, even over his own will, was what made the difference. And Jesus does not ask anything of us that he was not willing to experience himself.

In fact, he does not actually ask us to fully endure what he endured, yet he still imparts all of the benefits of his suffering to us, if we stay with him through it all.

In the Letter to the Hebrews, we read:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us...lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1-2)

We have a distinct advantage over the Apostles. We have the benefit of knowing the full picture. We know—as the Apostles did not at the

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time of the Transfiguration—that Jesus conquered death through his Resurrection and then went up to heaven to re-open the gates of the Kingdom through his Ascension.

The Crucifix keeps us grounded in reality, while the Scriptures simultaneously keep us motivated to follow Jesus to the same glory—to the same Transfiguration that is in store for us—in eternity, in Heaven.

Lent is an opportunity to build up our resistance to suffering. Lent is yet another way to “store up” graces by voluntary self-denial, so that when the suffering is involuntary—that is, when suffering is not something we choose or desire—we will have prepared ourselves so as not to be caught completely off guard.

And all of it—from the Transfiguration, to the Gospels, to the Crucifix, to Lent—all of it is a gift from Jesus himself because he wants us in Heaven with him even more than we want to be there!

And that’s why we can take him at his word.

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