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Our Lady - Star of the Sea |
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Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, Year A: 2010
It is difficult if we have to leave our ancestor
land to go to a new
land that we do not know about it. All
immigrants have the same
experience with Abraham. In fact, when we grow
older, it is tougher
for us to change our environment or condition of
our social life. From
the first reading, God called Abraham, when he
was eighty years old,
to go to a foreign land that God reserved for
him and his descendants.
Abraham must have a lot of trust in his God to
obey God’s call. He
believed that God has a better plan for him and
his descendants in the
new land.
Gospel of Mathew tells us a story of
transfiguration with the same
purpose. Jesus knew ahead the tough road that he
and his disciples
would go through. He will be arrested, be
crucified and died, but he
will be raised from the dead. His disciples will
also go through a lot
of persecutions. So transfiguration was an
assurance of faith for
Peter, James and John. Jesus wanted them to keep
their faith in his
final glory.
In our real life, we certainly had gone and will
go through a lot of
challenges and tough moral choices. It is not
easy to keep our faith
in God, if we don’t trust in God’s promises
of eternal glory. God
promised Abraham to be a father of a great
family of faith. Jesus
promised his disciples a glory that they will
share with him in
heaven. St. Paul said: what we endure in this
life is incomparable to
the reward for us in the life to come.
Last Friday, we watched the first two episodes
about the early
Christians. We learned that the early Christians
were persecuted
because they followed God’s commandments; they
denied worshiping
pagan’s gods; and they practiced Christian
virtues in their life.
Generally, the early Christians endured all of
those persecutions
because they believed in what the Son of God
said to them through his
Apostles.
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased; listen to him.”
Our Heavenly Father told us to listen to his
Words, and his words are
written in the gospel books.
Dear friends, Lenten season calls us back to
God. It calls us back to
his Word with a new determination of being
transformed by his Word.
During this Lent, we have to take time to read
the Gospel and reflect
on it. More importantly, we have to let his Word
to transform our life.
If we have the Word of God in our heart,
although we have to go
through trials, persecutions or disasters, we
still have peace because
we know that God is in our side. He will not
abandon us in our
struggles if we do not abandon him.
May God bless our effort to follow him to the
end. Amen.
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