A Homily - The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year B)

First Reading – Jeremiah 31:31-34 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 50(51):3-4, 12-15 ©

Second Reading – Hebrews 5:7-9 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 12:26

The Gospel According to John 12:20 – 33 ©

 

(NJB) 

 

Listen!

 

In times of conflict and despair it is right to speak in terms of hope; this is the role of the prophet.

And yet it is wrong to view conflict as divine punishment, or a favorable resolution of the conflict as divine favor.

God, the creator of the Universe, God has made all that is and all people in it free. We are absolutely free from divine coercion. With whatever wisdom we possess we set our own course and reap the consequences of our actions, consequences that are not meted out by God or any such divine agency, but through the laws of nature and prevailing social norms.

Know this!

With God there is never justice without mercy; contrition is like a cleansing rain or a healing balm, when we seek forgiveness from God, we are looking for something that already found us.

We are all sinners…animals, no different than the wolf or the lion, except insofar as our consciousness reaches out to the infinite, seeking counsel with God, who is present at our core. God speaks to us there, from our innermost being, and in the divine presence we receive  the grace to quiet the wolf and the lion within us, to overcome our animal nature and live a life governed by the dictates of conscience.

Do not look for God’s hand in the tribulations we suffer here, do not assign credit to God for the rewards you enjoy on earth. Both the good and the bad come like the wind, fleeting and ephemeral, sometimes a blessing at other times harmful.

Remember,

There is no crime that God has not forgiven.

God made every single one of us and has destined each of us for eternal life; therefore walk in justice and pursue the good joyously, exercising mercy with humility; knowing that whatever we suffer here is temporary, that all things will pass away.

Consider the Gospel reading for the day, be wary of propaganda and mindful of myth.

The reading for today does a disservice to the memory of Jesus, who was not killed for the “glory” of God, or to fulfill some divine purpose.

His death was a political murder, it was ordinary skullduggery and any suggestion otherwise undermines the truth, which as Christians we are committed to.

Be mindful.

The blessings of God are not transactional. All of God’s children, all people in all times, all people in all places are the subjects of God’s love and mercy. There is not a single person left out of the divine plan; any suggestion otherwise circumscribes the power of God, restricts the super-abundance of God’s love truncates and diminishes the good news.

God does not intervene in the world or interfere in human affairs, like Zeus or Jupiter or Jove are said to have done, as even the Abraham, Moses and David is said to have done. God is not the Thunderer; any such attestations are a disservice to the faith.

God does not come to us as a king, but as a loving friend, a brother, a sister, a parent; God comes to us in the form of a stranger, the meek and the marginalized, in the poor and the hungry.

Know this.

There is no power in this world other than God. There is no divine agency apart from the gency God directs. When the Gospel writers wrote about the “prince” of this world, and the sentencing of this devil that is yet to come...they were making it up.

They were trading on their own fears and promoting their own boogey-men.

Be at peace.

God has no enemy, and the only enmity we face is the enmity we engender in our own hearts. We ourselves are our own undoing…if we should fall apart, the divine spirit will put us back together.

First Reading – Jeremiah 31:31-34 ©

I Will Write my Law in their Hearts

See, the days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks – when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel (and the House of Judah), but not a covenant like the one I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant of mine, so I had to show them who was master. It is the Lord who speaks. No, this is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel when those days arrive – it is the Lord who speaks. Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people. There will be no further need for neighbour to try to teach neighbour, or brother to say to brother, ‘Learn to know the Lord!’ No, they will all know me, the least no less than the greatest – it is the Lord who speaks – since I will forgive their iniquity and never call their sin to mind.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 50(51):3-4, 12-15 ©

A pure heart create for me, O God.

Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.

  In your compassion blot out my offence.

O wash me more and more from my guilt

  and cleanse me from my sin.

A pure heart create for me, O God.

A pure heart create for me, O God,

  put a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence,

  nor deprive me of your holy spirit.

A pure heart create for me, O God.

Give me again the joy of your help;

  with a spirit of fervour sustain me,

that I may teach transgressors your ways

  and sinners may return to you.

A pure heart create for me, O God.

 

Second Reading – Hebrews 5:7-9 ©

He Learned to Obey and He Became the Source of Eternal Salvation

During his life on earth, Christ offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one who had the power to save him out of death, and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was heard. Although he was Son, he learnt to obey through suffering; but having been made perfect, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 12:26

Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

Whoever serves me must follow me, says the Lord; and where I am, there also will my servant be.

Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

 

The Gospel According to John 12:20 – 33 ©

If a Grain of Wheat Falls on the Ground and Dies, it Yields a Rich Harvest

Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. These approached Philip, who came from Bethsaida in Galilee, and put this request to him, ‘Sir, we should like to see Jesus.’ Philip went to tell Andrew, and Andrew and Philip together went to tell Jesus. Jesus replied to them:

‘Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

I tell you, most solemnly, unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.

Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for the eternal life.

If a man serves me, he must follow me, wherever I am, my servant will be there too.

If anyone serves me, my Father will honour him.

Now my soul is troubled.

What shall I say:

Father, save me from this hour?

But it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour.

Father, glorify your name!’

A voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ People standing by, who heard this, said it was a clap of thunder; others said, ‘It was an angel speaking to him.’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not for my sake that this voice came, but for yours.

‘Now sentence is being passed on this world; now the prince of this world is to be overthrown.

And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men to myself.’

By these words he indicated the kind of death he would die.

 

The Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year B)

A Homily - The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year B)

First Reading – 2 Chronicles 36:14 - 16, 19 - 23 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 136(137):1 - 6 ©

Second Reading – Ephesians 2:4 - 10 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 3:16

The Gospel According to John 3:14 – 21 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 God, the creator of the universe, God created the universe, and us in it, free; God does not intervene in human affairs and God never consecrated a temple in Jerusalem. This did not happen. The early Hebrews had it right when they carried the law with them wherever they made their camp, and the law, which was their connection to the divine, the law was at the center of their community.

 Know this.

 God did not send prophets and messengers to work among the people, God did not tap Samuel on the shoulder and say: “You there, go do this!” The same is true of Elijah and Elisha, and Isaiah was not a singular person, but a community of people writing over the course of generations,

 God does not select us for this mission, but calls all of us to it. There are women and men who devoted their lives to speaking against corruption, people who held up the law as the standard to which we should return when we have strayed from the principles of justice, mercy and humility that ought to characterize society. People like Jesus who hearkened to the law God had written in his hear, as in the hearts of everyone. God does not send prophets, they emerge in our midst to hold the powerful accountable. It is often the case that we do not recognize them when they are among us…but this is always the role they.

 Jeremiah did his best to speak the truth as he understood it (if Jeremiah did in fact exist), but God did not speak one word through Jeremiah, because God has left the discernment of the divine will to us.

 In freeing the Hebrew people and allowing them to return to Jerusalem, God did not act through Cyrus. Though it may be said that Cyrus acted on behalf of God, insofar as he acted in the interest of true justice…freeing people from bondage has always been viewed as serving the interests of justice.

 Be mindful of the psalmist and forget about Jerusalem.

 Do not fall into the error of coveting this city like the idolatrous covet their idols.

 Do not let your passion for a parcel of land turn you into killers and monsters, or turn you away from the loving God.

 Forget about Jerusalem, and forget about Rome.

 God, the creator of all that is, was and ever will be, God loves the whole of creation and has infused it with the grace of God’s own living spirit.

 This is the truth!

 We are created in grace, loved by God, and God’s grace has made us free.

 Know this!

 Our salvation was never in doubt. We are born in time and space, but God has made us for eternity.

 Have faith; trust God, not so that you can be saved, but trust that you are saved already.

 Consider the Gospel Reading for today.

 Remember this: the salvation of the world was not worked out by lawyers, and it does not take place in the context of a battle between the forces of good and evil.

 God has not called us to choose sides in a cosmic conflict between the creator and the enemy (whoever that might be) .

 The salvation of the world is not a magic act, it is found in healing: The healing of bodies, minds and spirits; the healing of social and political systems, including religious systems; the healing of economic systems, manufacturing and distribution systems.

 Jesus did not have to be lifted up as Moses lifted the serpent, so that the preconditions for belief in him could be established, so that upon expressing belief in Jesus, or acquiescing to the Church’s teaching regarding Jesus, the people of the world could receive the “golden ticket,” granting them access to eternal life.

 This ideological construction is wrong from root to stem.

 The gift of life is not transactional; it is free. We do not have to ask for it, just as we did not ask to be born. Like true love, eternal life comes to us from the creator without preconditions. It is comes to us simply because we are…and because we are, we are a part of the divine that can never be destroyed.

 Listen!

 If you trust in the teachings of Jesus you will find peace in this world, you will understand that the things we endure here: pain, suffering, alienation, uncertainty, hunger, disease and death, that these are all temporary.

 This is the heart of the Gospel.

 Belief, is not required to gain entrance to heaven; belief merely allows us to see the world of light and life beyond the veil of materiality that we are all entrenched in.

 Know this.

 There is no condemnation in God, nor in the ministry of Jesus. There is only hope and love and mercy. No one is condemned because they refuse to believe in the scriptures, in Christian doctrine or the dogma of the church; no one is condemned

 God pours out continuously the divine love that sustains all creations, no-one is beyond its reach.

 There is no magic power in a name, or an article of belief. However, if you do not trust in the way of Jesus (and trust is the meaning of faith), if you are not able to trust in the way, if you are selfish instead of giving, if you are malicious instead of loving, if you are harmful instead of helpful then you will suffer in this world, not as a punishment for what you did or did not do, but as the natural consequence for that type of behavior…you will suffer in your friendships and you will suffer in yourself. More importantly, you will be a source of suffering to other.

 Whereas, to trust in the way of Jesus is to liberate yourself in the here and now, it is to acquire freedom in the present reality, it is a blessing to everyone who comes to it and to all whom they encounter.

 

First Reading – 2 Chronicles 36:14 - 16, 19 - 23 ©

God's Wrath and Mercy are Revealed in the Exile and Release of His People

All the heads of the priesthood, and the people too, added infidelity to infidelity, copying all the shameful practices of the nations and defiling the Temple that the Lord had consecrated for himself in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their ancestors, tirelessly sent them messenger after messenger, since he wished to spare his people and his house. But they ridiculed the messengers of God, they despised his words, they laughed at his prophets, until at last the wrath of the Lord rose so high against his people that there was no further remedy.

Their enemies burned down the Temple of God, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, set fire to all its palaces, and destroyed everything of value in it. The survivors were deported by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon; they were to serve him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. This is how the word of the Lord was fulfilled that he spoke through Jeremiah, ‘Until this land has enjoyed its sabbath rest, until seventy years have gone by, it will keep sabbath throughout the days of its desolation.’

And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfil the word of the Lord that was spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation and to have it publicly displayed throughout his kingdom: ‘Thus speaks Cyrus king of Persia, “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; he has ordered me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! Let him go up.”’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 136(137):1 - 6 ©

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

By the rivers of Babylon

  there we sat and wept,

  remembering Zion;

on the poplars that grew there

  we hung up our harps.

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

For it was there that they asked us,

  our captors, for songs,

  our oppressors, for joy.

‘Sing to us,’ they said,

  ‘one of Zion’s songs.’

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

O how could we sing

  the song of the Lord

  on alien soil?

If I forget you, Jerusalem,

  let my right hand wither!

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

O let my tongue

  cleave to my mouth

  if I remember you not,

if I prize not Jerusalem

  above all my joys!

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 2:4 - 10 ©

You Have Been Saved through Grace

God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 3:16

Glory and praise to you, O Christ!

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son: everyone who believes in him has eternal life.

Glory and praise to you, O Christ!

 

The Gospel According to John 3:14 – 21 ©

God Sent his Son so that Through Him the World Might be Saved

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

‘The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.

For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.

No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son.

On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.

And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed; but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.’

 The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year B)

Observation - March 9th, 2024, Saturday

there is a plane

flying overhead

 

departing

 

by the sound its engines

            jetting away

Brenda Ueland – Author and Hero

Brenda Ueland lived most of her life in Minneapolis, the city where I grew up. She wrote and she taught writing and lived within a mile or two of where I have lived most of my life…and though we were contemporaries, for a time, I never met her.

I was still in my teens when she died.

I was well into my forties before I knew who she was. From the moment I began to read her book: If You Want to Write I knew that I had found a mentor whose simple prose and honesty could guide me in the maturation of my own work.

Brenda taught writing at the YWCA, she published a memoir about her life growing up in Minneapolis, a book that bears the title: Me. She wrote as a columnist for local newspapers and magazines, as well as national publications like Harper’s.

She was born in Minneapolis at the end of the nineteenth century; she spent her twenties in New York City where she was connected to various movements in the arts, literature and politics. She was a proto-feminist and a revolutionary thinker. She came to all of that with a simple self-assuredness that was the defining characteristic of her public persona, and which I also believe was a true expression of her authentic self…as she called her muse.

Brenda is a hero to me.

As a teacher of writing, she provided (and continues to provide) simple and profound guidance to the author, and poet.

She teaches her students to find their own voice and write from there.

Brenda encourages her students to be themselves, to tell their stories with the written word as if they were speaking to their closest friend, to shout when they are shouting, and to whisper in the time of whispering.

She guided them to their true selves, so that they might write with authenticity…reminding her students that the reader will know if they are faking.

Brenda encouraged people to listen to themselves, as deeply and as interestedly as they might listen to any other, to become as familiar with the sound of their own voices as they are with the image of themselves they see in a mirror.

Her book on writing had been out of print for nearly forty years until, a few years after her death in the 1980’s, it went back into production and became a best seller.

Like Brenda herself, the book she wrote was ahead of its time, and is the best treatise on writing I have ever been assigned.

A Homily – The Third Sunday of Lent (Year B)

First Reading – Exodus 20:1-17 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 18(19):8-11 ©

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 11:25, 26

Alternative Acclamation – John 3:16

The Gospel According to John 2:13 – 25 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Consider the reading from The Book of Exodus and this reflection on the law:

 There is fairness here, for the most part; the reading articulates a basic understanding of justice. Like any law, insofar as it approximates true justice, it approximates the divine will.

 Insofar as it does…it does, insofar as if fails it fails.

 Be mindful.

 It is easy for human beings to misunderstand, misconstrue or misapply even the simplest tenants of the law.

 All of the laws in our sacred books were written by human beings. They represent a myriad of interests. In some cases the law attempts to express divine justice, in other cases the law is directed to human interests. Even the best expressions of the law may be turned to bad ends by a bad will.

 It is fallacious to suggest that the law itself is divine; such commentary amounts to little more than propaganda. We must engage the law with our hearts and minds, to understand it and relate it to the unique challenges of each generation.

 The beginning of wisdom is this:

 God, the creator of the universe, God never spoke these words. Neither did God deliver the people from Egypt. God does not care about idols, and graven images, God’s only concern is that human beings are not enslaved to them.

 Slavery itself is an affront to God, who created all of us free, and desires that we remain that way. Spiritual slavery, mental slavery, material slavery, economic slavery…are an affront to God.

 Know this.

 God does not punish people for the crimes of their parents, or reward people for their good deeds. God does not intervene in human events.

 Law is the servant of justice and not the other way around.

 As children of God and servants of justice we must remember not to lie, cheat or steal; we should honor our parents who brought us into this world, and honor all people we encounter just the same. We should honor the stranger among us, the alien and the foreigner…as Jesus said, we should honor our enemy…we should honor them with the same love that God has shown us.

 Be mindful of the apostle and his teaching for today. It is like a shadow play, all smoke and mirrors, an exercise in the art of misdirection. His words do not serve as a foundation for anything, let alone faith in a loving and caring God, they are better suited for turning believers into sycophants.

 Beware of the preacher who cannot make a rational argument, who asks you to abandon reason.

 Beware of the preacher who cannot prove anything, then asks you to ignore all other proofs.

 Beware of the preacher who threatens while promising power as a reward for blind obedience.

 These preachers are a con-artists.

 We do not purchase eternal life with the currency of belief, grace is not transactional.

 We were made by God, and we were made for eternity; God has a plan for us and desires our faith in it.

 The gift of life is free. We do not have to ask for it, just as we did not ask to be born, like true love, eternal life comes to us without conditions.

 If you place your trust in the way, you will find peace in the world, and you will understand that the things we endure here: pain, suffering, alienation, uncertainty, hunger, disease and death, that all of these things are temporary.

 Have faith; there is no condemnation in God nor in the ministry of Jesus, in God and Jesus there is hope and love, there is justice and there is mercy, in the divine there is grace…all grace, and humility.

 Listen!

 No one is condemned because they refuse to believe in the scriptures, in Christian doctrine or the dogma of the church. To spread such news is contrary to the gospel, reflecting the principles of an extortionist.  

 Remember!

 There is no magic power in a name. Faith in Jesus brings liberation from the exigencies of the here and now, of our present reality, which is a blessing to everyone who finds it and to all whom they encounter.

 Consider the Gospel reading for the day.

 This reading moves in many directions.

 The writers of John’s Gospel mixed into this reading a commentary on the social corruption of their day, more than a century after the death of Jesus. In doing so they distanced themselves from the memory of Jesus and the disciples; they did so propagandistically.

 It was unnecessary for the writers to comment on the Jewish Passover as if it were an alien tradition; this was unnecessary unless they were writing to people who were not themselves Jewish and their desire was to distance Christianity from its Jewish origins.

 Let us be clear, Jesus was a Jew. He was a Rabbi, a leader in the synagogue and man of the diaspora. He was a Pharisee. To Jesus and the disciples the Passover was simply the Passover…it was not the not the “Jewish” Passover. These subtle shifts in the narrative reveal the Gospel writer’s intentions.

 There was corruption in the temple. There has always been corruption in the priesthood (in every priesthood there has ever been), both before the time of Jesus and after.

 Religious institutions are organized along commercial lines as much (or more) as they are organized along spiritual lines. Knowing this, it is wise to apply this critique to the entire community of believers, not just the hierarchy. We should apply it to the working of the church  in all times and all places…including your own Church in the here and now.

 

First Reading – Exodus 20:1-17 ©

The Law Given at Sinai

God spoke all these words. He said, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

‘You shall have no gods except me.

‘You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God and I punish the father’s fault in the sons, the grandsons, and the great-grandsons of those who hate me; but I show kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

‘You shall not utter the name of the Lord your God to misuse it, for the Lord will not leave unpunished the man who utters his name to misuse it.

‘Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath for the Lord your God. You shall do no work that day, neither you nor your son nor your daughter nor your servants, men or women, nor your animals nor the stranger who lives with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that these hold, but on the seventh day he rested; that is why the Lord has blessed the sabbath day and made it sacred.

‘Honour your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God has given to you.

‘You shall not kill.

‘You shall not commit adultery.

‘You shall not steal.

‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

‘You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his servant, man or woman, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is his.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 18(19):8-11 ©

You, Lord, have the message of eternal life.

The law of the Lord is perfect,

  it revives the soul.

The rule of the Lord is to be trusted,

  it gives wisdom to the simple.

You, Lord, have the message of eternal life.

The precepts of the Lord are right,

  they gladden the heart.

The command of the Lord is clear,

  it gives light to the eyes.

You, Lord, have the message of eternal life.

The fear of the Lord is holy,

  abiding for ever.

The decrees of the Lord are truth

  and all of them just.

You, Lord, have the message of eternal life.

They are more to be desired than gold,

  than the purest of gold

and sweeter are they than honey,

  than honey from the comb.

You, Lord, have the message of eternal life.

 

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 ©

The Crucified Christ, the Power and Wisdom of God

While the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, here are we preaching a crucified Christ; to the Jews an obstacle that they cannot get over, to the pagans madness, but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 11:25, 26

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord; whoever believes in me will never die.

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

 

Alternative Acclamation – John 3:16

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son: everyone who believes in him has eternal life.

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

 

The Gospel According to John 2:13 – 25 ©

Destroy this Sanctuary and in Three Days I Will Raise It Up

Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain where they could be alone by themselves. There in their presence he was transfigured: his clothes became dazzlingly white, whiter than any earthly bleacher could make them. Elijah appeared to them with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. Then Peter spoke to Jesus: ‘Rabbi,’ he said ‘it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ He did not know what to say; they were so frightened. And a cloud came, covering them in shadow; and there came a voice from the cloud, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.’ Then suddenly, when they looked round, they saw no one with them any more but only Jesus.

As they came down from the mountain he warned them to tell no one what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They observed the warning faithfully, though among themselves they discussed what ‘rising from the dead’ could mean.

 

The Third Sunday of Lent (Year B)