SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT -- YEAR A

READINGS First Reading: Gen 12: 1-4; Second: 2 Tim 1: 8-10 Gospel: Mt 17: 1-9

THEME OF THE READINGS 

I want to emphasize, as the theme of the readings, the word vocation. God calls Abram out of his land to go to the land he will indicate (First Reading). Jesus reveals to three of his disciples, in a singular and divine experience, his vocation as new Moses and new Elijah (Gospel). Finally St. Paul reminds his disciple Timothy about the holy vocation God has given him, which must be a source of confidence in the power of God to the point of suffering for the Gospel (Second Reading).

DOCTRINAL MESSAGE 

In the Christian idea of life, every person is "called," receives their own vocation from God, and the qualities and graces to undertake it. Vocation to matrimony, to the religious life, to the priesthood; vocation to give glory to God and to serve one's neighbor as a doctor, worker, journalist, farmer, professor of theology, parish priest, social worker, military or hospital chaplain. God the Father, in his loving care, gives each one the qualities, circumstances and graces to fulfill their vocation. 

Abram lived peacefully in Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. It was a culture, perhaps the most advanced of the time, with a technical development of very high standards, admired by all peoples. Then God burst into that tranquil, humanly satisfying life, and called him to leave everything to implement "a dream of God," something Abram neither saw nor could imagine: to establish a new people in a distant, undeveloped land more than 1,500 kilometers away. Abram believed, had confidence in God, and responded in freedom and greatness of spirit to the vocation God had given him. As a result, God blessed him and made him father of all believers and founder of the people of Israel. 

Jesus has come to this world "to do the will of his Father," and to manifest to all the incredible love of God. Jesus' vocation is described in the Gospels and in the New Testament in a variety of ways, as the new Adam, a figure of Isaac, as the incarnation of Wisdom, etc. In the transfiguration, as narrated by St. Matthew, Jesus is seen by his three disciples in between Moses and Elijah, as the new legislator who will give men the one, unique commandment to love, a synthesis of all the rest, and as new prophet proclaiming the secrets of the heart of his Father, God. As new Moses and new Elijah he fulfills his vocation and manifests the love of the Father. 

Paul's disciple Timothy has received a holy vocation: to be guide to the Christian community and lead it by the way of virtue and the will of God. To carry this out, he has received the imposition of hands. It is a hard vocation, especially in times of persecution. Paul asks him not to be ashamed to witness to Jesus Christ by his word and, if necessary, by his suffering. To conduct himself in this manner, Timothy needs the certainty that his vocation is not his own choice, but a grace from God, an entirely efficacious grace manifested in Jesus Christ who has destroyed death and made life and immortality radiate.

PASTORAL SUGGESTIONS 

It is very important every Christian knows and is convinced of "having received a vocation," of having been called into life for a mission; whether large or small is unimportant. Lent is a time of conversion, but also of reflection, reflection on one's existence, on the meaning of life, on the reason for being in the world, by way of preparation for, and in the light of, the paschal mystery (Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ). This awareness of vocation is important in order to help people not to "feel alone," because he who sends is close to the one sent, walking at their side through life. One’s vocation, no matter what it is, is always ecclesial: in the Church and at the service of the Church. 

A vocation should infuse excitement and enthusiasm into daily life. One does not just "let things happen," but lives one’s vocation consciously and joyfully, with the hope of completing life's project, and of constructing, along with other Christians, a better world. Finally, to think of life in terms of a vocation gives energy and hope for the future, in the certainty that the God who calls is the same one who waits for us, with the open arms of the Father, at the end of the road.. Awareness of one's own, intimate vocation does not exempt one from difficulties or, for that matter, from joys. 

The figures of Abram, Timothy, and especially Jesus, the liturgy gives us are eloquent. In writing about the transfiguration, St. Luke says Moses and Elijah were speaking "of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem," in other words, his Passion. Like Abram and Timothy, Jesus teaches us to be courageous and generous in face of difficulties, and to have extreme confidence in God, with the certainty we will be helped and blessed by him. As pastors, we must be able to discern the different vocations of the faithful, the difficulties they find in carrying them out; they will need to be accompanied on their daily journey, in their sorrows as well as in their joys. Is it not, after all, the essence of a pastor’s vocation to sustain and stimulate the vocation of each of the faithful?

Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOA.html by P. ANTONIO IZQUIERDO L.C. (1948-2013)

[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].