A Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent

​+ Domine, bonum est nos hic esse. Lord, it is good that we are here.
 
Through the Sacred Liturgy of the Church Saint Peter’s words uttered on the high mountain of the Transfiguration echo through the centuries down to us this morning: “Lord, it is good that we are here.”
 
Saints Peter, James and John were taken apart from the remainder of the twelve to witness the Transfiguration of the Lord. It was a singular privilege accorded to them, no doubt to cement their formation and to strengthen them in due course for their mission as great Apostles who would shed their blood rather than deny the truth that Jesus of Nazareth is the long-awaited Christ of God, the definitive revelation of Almighty God in history and the unique saviour of all mankind. Second to their physical encounters with the Risen Christ after His resurrection, the Transfiguration and the awe that it inspired in its three chosen witnesses no doubt served as a solid foundation for all that would be required of them in the future.
 
Domine, bonum est nos hic esse. Lord, it is good that we are here—that we are here in this monastery church this morning on this Second Sunday of Lent.
 
It is good that we monks are here, in answer to the prayer of psalm 26 that we sing at matins each Sunday: “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.” (v. 4) It is good, indeed salvific, that it is possible to continue to glimpse the Transfigured and Resurrected Christ each day at Holy Mass, to dwell in the light of these realities and to sing His praises throughout the day and the night, rendering Him the rightful worship that is His due.
 
And it is good that others, with different vocations, are here with us throughout the week, but most particularly on this, the Lord’s Day. The demands of living in the world are many and varied, but without the consolation and strength that is given to us by the transfigured and resurrected Christ—Who is here for us to see and adore at the elevation of the Sacred Host and of the Chalice at every Mass—the burdens of the world may very well become too heavy to bear. The Church’s precept of keeping Sunday sacred so as first and foremost to be able to worship Almighty God at Mass ensures that, as a bare minimum, we have one re-creative encounter with Christ each week.
 
Be we a monk, a nun, a lay man or woman or a secular cleric, we need this. We need the strength and the consolation that encountering God’s glory gives us—which is why we search always to celebrate the Sacred Rites of the Church’s liturgy as worthily as we are able, with great dignity and beauty. We need help and sustenance in daily persevering in all that is demanded of us. We need to know, whilst carrying the cross, that we too shall share in the glory of the Resurrection.  We need the assurance of the psalmist who continues psalm 26: “He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of his tent, He will set me high upon a rock.” (v. 5)
 
For this encounter with the Resurrected and Glorified Christ that is ours each time we offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is good, as was the encounter of Saints Peter, James and John with the transfigured Christ on the high mountain, It is a direct and personal encounter with the source of all goodness: Almighty God Himself. We could not ask for anything better in this life!
 
We are, like Peter, James and John, privileged to be taken apart and invited to share in its fullness. But in order optimally to profit from this opportunity we must do our part. None of the three saints taken up to the mountain excused themselves because they were tired or had other things to do. We must be at Sunday Mass, every Sunday (and holy day of obligation). The monk must be in his choir stall, for every office. This is the bare minimum!
 
Then we must be awake and spiritually attentive and alert, seeking to participate in the action of Christ in the liturgy of His Church as optimally as possible. We must be prepared, cleansed—with sacramental confession if necessary—and concentrated, so as carefully and fruitfully to listen to Him with Whom, as the Holy Gospel reminds us, the Father is well pleased.
 
Domine, bonum est nos hic esse. Lord, it is good that we are here. May our Lenten disciplines purify us and enable us to be able to draw more and more strength from the glory that He makes manifest to us here, daily, on His altar, to sustain us in this life and so as to bring us to share in His unending glory in the next. +