By Fr Joshan Rodrigues –
The season of Lent coincides with election season this year around, and we have seen our political leaders at their ‘promising’ best. There was a last minute dash to inaugurate as many projects as one humanly can. Hundreds of projects and proposals were passed by legislative houses in a matter of minutes with scarcely any discussion on their merits or flaws. The impossibility of being physically present at every ‘ribbon-cutting’ ceremony has been overcome with the astute use of technology. Read web-conferencing. A plethora of promises are made before every election, but then there are promises made and promises kept.
We have been long accustomed to hearing promises made only to find our hopes dashed in the months and years following. No wonder then, that a certain fatigue has crept in when we hear the oft repeated exhortation that we must be good citizens who do their democratic duty. Hope turns to despair then, as we watch civic progress and development fail to keep pace with our eager expectations from the political class.
Contrast this with the season of Lent, which is a season of promise as well, the only difference being that this promise has already been fulfilled 2000 years ago. Hence, as Christians we journey through this period of grace with the joyful confidence of encountering the Risen Lord on Easter. This promise has already been kept.
The beautiful Gospel passage on the Transfiguration this Sunday, comes on the heels of Jesus telling his disciples just a few days earlier, that he will suffer and die. The disciples are crest-fallen, but then Jesus takes Peter, James and John to get a glimpse into the Glory of the Resurrection that is to come. The three disciples are given the privilege of seeing Jesus’ divine nature, ‘literally and visibly’ radiate forth from his human body. Thirty years after the Transfiguration Peter would write, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eye witnesses of his majesty.” (2 Peter 1:16).
Moses and Elijah speak to Jesus of “his ‘exodus’, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.” (Luke 9: 31). By his sacrifice on the Cross, Jesus will lead his people into the new and everlasting ‘exodus’ from a slavery to sin, to the joy and glory of being forever in union with our heavenly Father.
The election season presents to us a cacophony of voices and opinions, attempting to sway us one way or another. But God’s voice is authoritative, yet comforting and reassuring – “This is my Chosen Son; listen to him!” The Transfiguration assures us that God intends to keep the promises He made to us. It is a promise of what is to come – that the Lamb of God will march for us against Death; He will embrace his Cross and become “the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 Jn 2:2).
Secondly, the presence of Moses and Elijah at the left and right of the transfigured Lord, show us that hundreds of years after the end of their earthly life, they are alive and well in God’s Kingdom, enjoying the glorious splendour of the hope that is in Christ Jesus. This glorious splendour will be ours too, if we journey with Christ on the road to Calvary. This is a promise made and a promise kept.
Fr Joshan Rodrigues belongs to the Archdiocese of Bombay. He has Master’s Degrees in Nuclear Physics and Sociology. He has recently completed his Licentiate in Institutional and Social Communications from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome. He currently serves as Assistant to the Editor, The Examiner, the Bombay Diocesan Catholic Newsweekly. He frequently blogs on faith and culture in Musings in Catholic Land