+ It may seem odd to have
the glorious moment of the Transfiguration squared with the second week of
Lent. It is a truly remarkable moment: Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up
the mountain and, there, Jesus becomes radiant, His divinity shining forth—even
His clothing is brilliant. It is a moment where Jesus reveals His glory.
But why does He do this?
Why is it important for Lent?
It is here that Jesus will immediately turn and begin His journey to Jerusalem where He will suffer on the Cross, die, and be
raised on the third day. The Transfiguration, therefore, was to be the moment
where Jesus, giving His Apostles this vision of glory, would strengthen them so as
to give them reason to stay close to Him during the fear and suffering of the
crucifixion-- even though they would not.
The
Transfiguration would also be a lesson in things to come: there would be the
glorious Resurrection after the Cross—a resurrection that we too would participate in: we
too will radiate this heavenly glory, if only we embrace the Cross. (The Cross being not only the sign of a life of sacrifice, but firstly the place of God's Mercy!)
This is one of the oddities of our
Catholic faith: we believe that Jesus not only came to redeem us, but to fill
us with His glory—the very “stuff” of God, the radiance of His divine life, “heaven
and earth are full of [His] glory.” Jesus came not only to save us, but to
transfigure us, to raise us by His grace to supernatural heights!
* * *
Paul takes this theme of
glory and shows a contrast: He says there are some whose glory is not in the
glory of God, but whose “glory is in their ‘shame.’” What does this mean? It
means that there are some whose lives don’t radiate God’s glory, but rather a
shamefulness that has resulted from choosing other gods.
For example, Paul says
there are some whose “God is their stomach.”
What does this mean?
It means that there are
some who choose to make their life’s pursuit the fulfillment of their lower
appetites. They try to fill their desires with lower pleasures, but, like the
stomach which always becomes empty, they are never satisfied. They always want
more. Because their “God is their stomach,” they never see God as the
fulfillment of all their desires, they never embrace the rough wood of the
Cross and, because of that, they never enter His glory. Their glory is their
shame; their end is destruction.
It is particularly timely,
therefore, to delve into two of the deadly sins that most clearly correspond
with Paul’s words: namely, gluttony and lust. Let’s take them individually
here.
* * *
Gluttony refers not only
to an immoderate eating of food, but to drink and all the other things that we
try to compensate for our lack of God—like becoming fat on current events, for
example.
When it is focused on
food, gluttony leads—physically—to a slowness and even to ill-health. We
literally can’t run races. And not only physically, but spiritually, we become
slow. Our mind and spirit become dull, which make it difficult to pray and to
be virtuous. We no longer fight the good fight nor run the race of faith.
This is one of the deadly
sins. It kills us. In other words, it is mortal.
In terms of drink, this
includes getting drunk. Why is getting drunk “mortal”? Because we are made for
glory, for being fully alive and having the full possession of our faculties
(and our vehicles)—but getting drunk turns us into beasts. And it’s not just
the partiers on the weekends, its housewives during the day, or a person who
comes home after work to have “just a couple” to take the edge off. That’s going
to the bottle for help instead of going to God—and it quickly leads to the
slavery of alcoholism. It is not man fully alive. Drunkenness is a mortal sin
and must be confessed.
I also wish to sound the
alarm in regards to heroin. In my short years as a priest, I have noticed the
explosion of drug use in our local community. Every year, I have had to bury a
young person who died because of heroin. This past year, I buried three. I
plead with you, even to tears, and with the families as well: heroin and its
entry drug, marijuana, are destroying our young and our families! (And please don’t
tell me that marijuana is not an entry drug. Every young person I have buried
started with it). The physical and spiritual effects of drug use are
disastrous. We all probably know someone who has been affected by this. Let us
bring about more awareness here, and pray.
And let us remember: “Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
They will be satisfied.”
Ultimately, the solution
to sins of gluttony will be the grace of faith, expressed by entering into the
suffering of self-denial found by embracing the Cross which is sacrifice and Mercy. We must say no to some
things—we can’t have all the things. We need to exercise. Fast once in a while.
Practice temperance. And go to confession for mercy. You’ll start to become fully alive and enter the glory
of God. Cross, then glory.
* * *
Let us turn to the ugly
cousin of gluttony: that is, lust. Lust follows along the same lines: to try to
the fill God-sized hole in our hearts with something that is less than
God-sized.
Lust begins by an improper
way of seeing. It sees only with the eyes and the passions, but not with the
heart. It turns people into objects and forgets their dignity as children of
God.
Our Lord Himself said, “Blessed
are the pure of heart, they shall see God.”
Of course, our world says
that it’s ok to lust, to satisfy our animal passions and appetites. But that’s
simply saying that we are slaves to them—and I am no slave!
Lust translates into
impatience. Since it is enslaved to the passions, it cannot wait— it cannot be
patient. Well, love is patient. Patience, it is worth noting, comes from “patior,”
which means “I suffer.” Lust and its impatience is literally an unwillingness
to suffer for love, an unwillingness to embrace the Cross for glory.
Because of its connection to love and seeing, lust can
easy devolve into a spiritual blindness that easily overlooks and may even deny
the faith. As it focuses so much on the flesh and not on the God that dwells in
us, lust is a close relative of idolatry.
Physically, it can lead to disease and to the neglect of
one’s work and family—and even to their destruction.
Here, I would like to sound the alarm again, but on a new
drug. Depending on which study you see, anywhere
between 60-77% of men watch porn on a regular basis—and it’s not just the men,
either; the rates in women are rapidly catching up. It’s a billion dollar
industry that has become mainstream, so much so that the average age that our
kids are exposed to this stuff is age 9. This is destroying our families and
our communities.
Lust is one of the seven deadly sins and consenting to it
and/or acting upon it, as in the case of pornography, is mortal. Going to
confession is required before receiving Holy Communion.
The solution to sins of lust
is chastity. Chastity is not celibacy. Chastity is that self-mastery that
seeks to live a clean life, a pure life, and to see another as a person, as a
child of God, and not as a piece of meat. Chastity embraces, with love, the
patience of the Cross, expressed through little mortifications: waking up early
so as to pray; turning the shower knob to cold for the duration of a Hail Mary
once in a while; going outside and fasting from the computer; praying for those
who are enslaved; and going to confession to learn from Jesus, the Master, and to receive His Mercy.
* * *
Let us conclude. Glory comes through the Cross. No Cross,
no glory. Indeed, Paul goes so far as to say that those whose god is their
stomach are “enemies of the Cross”!
We are made for more. Our citizenship is in heaven. We
are made for glory.
Let us pray, therefore, that during this penitential and
holy season of Lent in this Year of Mercy, that we may be strengthened by God’s
grace, purified of our sins by His Mercy, and radically conformed to His Cross
so as to be transfigured in glory. May we live no longer as the beasts, but as
the glorious God, Jesus Christ!
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