The Second Sunday of Lent
Sunday, March 8
This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.
In just the previous chapter of Matthew we have the famous confession of Simon Peter: You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God! Then Our Lord reveals for the first time: that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed. Peter rebukes him… he just declared him the messiah and the son of God, but he still finds it necessary to speak and set Jesus strait on this.
Six days later we have the transfiguration. And in this sublime moment, Peter again finds it necessary to speak. And even though he just declared Jesus the messiah and the son of God, he’s overwhelmed by these two great lights of Jews faith in Moses and Elijah such that he’s proposing to treat all of them now as equals with three tents . . .
Yet While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “Peter, This is my beloved Son, who stands far above Moses and Elijah and anyone else you can think of. With whom I am well pleased: in everything he has done and everything he has told you including the parts about his suffering and death and your need to follow and take up that cross – and so for the love of my beloved son, the Christ, and for God’s (that would be mine own) sake, could you please stop talking and just listen to him.”
Could you please just listen to him.
We live in a world that does not want to listen: we can be so certain that we are right – that we have the proper ideas. Some of that failure to listen is out of fear – out of concern that we might actually be wrong and may have to change. And sometimes we really know we are right; and that feels so good and righteous we don’t care to listen to whether or not our timing or our intentions are good. And sometimes we’ve simply committed ourselves to an ideology – all reasoning is really off the table we see very little point in listening at all.
We need to listen if we are going to be followers of Jesus Christ. We need to make sure we’re not charging in with things that seem good when they might not be appropriate or properly timed. We need to listen even to those who oppose the Church and her teachings (both from without and from within) so that we can know and understand where the other is coming from and so that we can hopefully lead him home. And we need to constantly return to this listening to Christ and his Church – seeking that understanding and wisdom that can only come from him and has been passed down through the centuries.
In Christ, through Mary,
Fr. Dominic David Maichrowicz, OP