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Get into the ring! How this works...

This is easy! Each week on Thursday I post my homily idea...my main focus for preaching this coming Sunday. What I am hoping for is a reaction from people in the pews. Does my "focus" connect with your daily life, faith, and experience? Or not? Either affirm the direction I am going in (by giving me an example from your life) or challenge me, ask for clarification! Questions are the best! Reaction rather than reflection is what I'm looking for here. Don't be afraid, get in the ring. Ole!



Friday, February 26, 2010

Dis-, Con-,Trans-figured! Lent Week II

This Sunday I will be presiding and preaching at the 9:30am and 11:00am Masses. The Sunday readings can be found at: www.usccb.org/nab/022810.shtml.
Last week's homily is available at: www.archive.com[search: Estok].

This week is the Second Sunday of Lent and the week we traditionally hear the story of Jesus' Transfiguration. If we take the word apart (as the title of this post indicates) we can readily see that it means "changed image". Customarily and understandably we think of it as the "change in Jesus' look" - the showing of him in a new image. What I am thinking is that the change that takes place is not in Jesus at all - but in his disciples.

While Jesus was "changed in his image" or transfigured, it is his disciples that were trans-formed or "changed in shape". It is the shape of their faith and understand that was changed by what they beheld in Jesus. Lent is a time for such transformation in us. Transformation is a more helpful word then our typical lenten word of "repent". Repenting can be understood as confessing error and "returning" to our former state of relationship with God.

I prefer transform or convert to express the call of our lenten journey. We are not called "back to" where we were but rather to "turn into" something that we have never fully been. Our journey to Communion with God is not a so much a staircase to heaven (one step forward and closer after another) but a spiral path that circles around familiar places while increasingly growing closer to the love of God.

What do you think?