Departure…Transfigure
Abram, Moses, Elijah, & Jesus had something in common other than being four of salvation history’s greatest prophets. They all had to make a departure. Abram left Ur to some new land he was clueless about. Moses left the pasture for Egypt, to challenge, of all people, Pharaoh. Elijah bolted Israel & hid in a cave to escape from Jezebel (the evil queen, not the mermaid!) Jesus? He departed, too. Twice, in fact, & with both eyes open. He left the carpenter’s life. Then, he left this life, & in a quite gruesome, terrifying way. Ever notice, sisters & brothers, any important transformation, any significant growth is often preceded by a departure? Departure may be geographical: a student leaves for college, a mother flies to be OFW, a probinsyanomoves to the city for seminary/convent. The departure may also be psychological: a user enters rehab, the troubled braves psychotherapy, a fiancée embraces another religion, a parent accepts terminal illness. And they are all transfigured. The most immediate examples of departure & transfiguration are you & I. We wouldn’t have become who & what we are now if we didn’t “go away.” Departure transfigures us. Leave-taking changes us. Kaya nga we have this funny expression: “hindi maka-move-on.” One who barely departs barely transfigures. Worse, applying the third law of thermodynamics which I learned from Fr Jett: one who remains the same also transfigures, yes, but for the worse. In a word, entropy. Two years before they killed him, Jesus of Nazareth departed from home to become healer. He was done fixing things. From now on, he’d be fixing people. He departed from powerless to powerful. So, from the day he left his mom, he took as maaaany people with him on the journey…from powerless to powerful, too! He transfigured them from ill to well, from dead to breathing, from sinner to humbled. But his first departure wasn’t without risks. He earned enemies now, not just friends, met really nasty people now, not just good. He also filled with rage now, something he never thought he was capable of feeling; far from the serenity he’d always been familiar with. And boy, did he feel exhausted! Not even a storm mid-lake could wake him up! Iba pala ‘yung pagod ng pagpapanday ng gamit d’un sa pagod ng pagkukumpuni ng buhay. Jesus could’ve stayed on Mt. Tabor if he wanted to, & revel in his power the rest of the time. After all, he had already transfigured many lives on this first departure. If you’ve been to Mt. Tabor, you wouldn’t blame Peter for not wanting to move on & just stay up there. To this day, sisters & brothers, it’s a beautiful place! But Jesus wasn’t done w/ departures just yet. The second & last had to be made: the departure from powerful to powerless. May mga parinig na siya nitong nagdaang mga araw. Dying, he suggested, was as redemptive as living. Just as people were saved by his life, they’d also be saved by his death. Pero walang explanation, in any rational, algebraic way for his friends to entirely understand: “save by living, save by dying.” In his heart of hearts & only in there, Jesus knew that departing from powerful to powerless would also transfigure not only Judaism, but all humanity. It really works the same way with us, you know. When we use the power & glory God has given us in order to precisely part with it when it is time, then truly have we been transfigured into the image & likeness of God’s Son, with whom the Father is well pleased. We see it only too often, sisters & brothers; people who refuse to make the second departure from powerful to powerless. Already borne by God to “somebody” from “nobody,” elevated by God to “richly blessed” from “dirt poor,” lifted by God from beggar to fund-raiser, the Scarlet O’Hara’s (or if you wish, the Imeldifics), they cry (& I quote from Gone with the Wind): “As God is my witness…I’ll never be hungry again, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill, as God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.” Among the lay as well as among the religious are those who can’t & wont’ make that second departure despite God’s clearest, most insistent call. They’re transfigured, too, I guess, but per the 3rd thermodynamics law. They often become imperious & machiavellian, self-indulgent & self-referential, divisive & destructive—all personified by the hierarchs of Jesus’ day. Jesus’ show-&-tell remains true, sisters & brothers. Depart & be transfigured. Descend & be raised. But cling & grasp? We crash & burn. “But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and do not be afraid.’” That’s the assurance we all need, sisters & brothers; rise & be not afraid, because the second departure from powerful to powerless can be quite terrifying. But rise, Jesus says, & be not afraid. And we can trust him because he died in utter powerlessness, yes. But now he’s forever risen in power & glory untold. Depart & be transfigured. Descend & be raised. And so we pray the words of today’s Psalm: “Lord, let your mercy be on us as we place our trust in you.” Homily delivered by Fr Arnel Aquino, SJ on 4 March 2023 Anticipated Sunday Mass on the Second Sunday of Lent Cenacle Retreat House