Second Sunday of Lent/B
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (Mk 9:2-10) Jesus, on a high mountain, is transfigured before Peter, James and John and his garments become resplendent, very white. In this context those present hear a voice from a cloud: “This is my Son, the Beloved: listen to him!”.
There have been and are moments in our lives when we have had and are having an authentic experience of the true God and understand ourselves, our existence, the profound unity and meaning of our history. These are moments where the essentials of life are understood, where our future is revealed in its true, authentic position, and where the meaning, the strength that comes from the true God overcomes our fear, our doubts, what blocks our life.
The experience of God, of the true God, is able to change our lives, to lead us to make choices for truth and not for fear, it gives us the strength to make the necessary separations that only allow us to live in fullness, it teaches us true and refined charity, starting with the charity we have to learn to have towards ourselves.
To experience the true God, not what we invent to deceive ourselves into thinking we are well, is nothing other than to taste ‘life in abundance’.
The communion antiphon for today’s Celebration is taken from Chapter 17 of the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 17:9) with the following text:
“Visionem quam vidistis, nemini dixeritis,
donec a mortuis resurgat Filius hominis.”
(Tell no one about the vision you have seen
until the Son of Man has risen from the dead).
The attached music, in Gregorian Chant, is taken from the Graduale Triplex published in Solesmes in 1979. The interpretation is by the “Gloriæ Dei Cantores” conducted by Elizabeth C. Patterson. The music track can be found on the CD “The Chants of Transfiguration” published by Naxox of America in 2013.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
