Listen, see and respond
The following homily was delivered by Archbishop George H. Niederauer at St. Agnes Church in San Francisco Feb. 28, 2010, marking the installation of Jesuit Father Ray Allender as Pastor.
“You’re seeing things!” When we say that to people, we usually mean they’re seeing something imaginary, something that is not really there. But “You’re seeing things!” is not always an accusation; it could even be a compliment. A police detective, for example, is paid to see things – things ordinary people miss, but things that are really there. And the detective makes connections that most of the rest of us would miss.
We know that two people can look at the same set of facts and come up with completely different versions or interpretations of reality. They’ll say to each other, “That’s not the way I see it.” This happens all the time in nature around us. For example an astronomy student looks at a sunset and interprets it in a way different from that of the ordinary person. You and I may say “What a beautiful sunset!” But the astronomer knows and remembers that the sun does not set – rather, the earth moves.
This “seeing things” differently happens for us who believe in Jesus Christ and the teachings of his Church: e.g., our belief about the bread and wine on this altar at Mass. The readings for the Second Sunday in Lent tell us about people who “saw things” which God showed them in a special way, in a vision – Abraham, in the first reading (Genesis 15:5-12), and then the Apostles Peter and James and John in the gospel (Luke 9:28B-36).
In the reading from Genesis, Abram, in the Old Testament, was elderly and childless, but God promised him numerous descendants who would live in a land of their own. At first Abram can’t “see” it, but God makes a covenant with him and seals it with the sacrifice Abram offers – and he makes Abram see a special vision of the brazier and the torch, as a sign of the promise he makes to Abram.
The Apostles Peter, James and John see Jesus in a new way, in glory, as the Son of God – in the moment we call the “Transfiguration.” The three disciples see Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah, who represent the Law of the Old Testament and the Prophets who spoke to the people for God and prepared them for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus.
The story of this vision is always the gospel reading for the Second Sunday in Lent, but today in Luke’s version we are told that Jesus is speaking with Moses and Elijah about his suffering, death and resurrection in Jerusalem, which are fast approaching. Pope Leo the Great said this experience strengthened the faith of these three apostles in two ways: first, it prepared them to endure the sight of Jesus crucified and dying, sustained by their faith in his glory as Son of God. Second, it prepared them for the risen glory of Jesus on Easter morning.
Of course, these three men were human, like us. They wanted the beautiful vision to go on forever. Peter wanted to build a shelter for that purpose. But the path to resurrection and eternal life still passed through Jerusalem and the Cross on Calvary. Jesus has been teaching the apostles that truth all along. On this occasion God the Father speaks to the three apostles, as he did to Abram – in order to confirm the vision they are seeing, and to identify Jesus, the Master who is leading them. God says to the three disciples: “This is my Son, my chosen one. Listen to him.”
What does this story mean for us? How are you and I called to respond to Jesus as Lord in this gospel moment? You and I are called to “see things.” We are meant to be a people of vision, a people with a vision of Jesus Christ and how to follow him. The Father calls us to “listen to him” in our lives, as Peter, James and John did, and to let our listening to Jesus make differences: now and in our hope of eternal life and glory.
If we listen to Jesus in the Gospel and try to see things differently in the light of his teaching and example, it will make a difference in the way we live our lives. This listening to Jesus and seeing the world in the light of his teaching makes all sorts of differences: in the goals we choose and the priorities we set, in the way we treat people and talk about them, in our response to people who need our attention and our help, in our meeting of the crosses and suffering of our own lives as united with those of our Savior. This season of Lent calls us back to this special way of listening and seeing and responding.
St. Paul in his letter to the Philippians (3:17-4:1) contrasts disciples who listen to Jesus and see things his way with “the enemies of the cross of Christ” whose “god is their belly and whose glory is their shame.” Paul describes the worldly and the selfish this way because they are set on the things of this world as the ultimate values and goals in their lives. When we live that way we illustrate Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic, “a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Disciples, Paul says, are called to be “citizens of heaven,” pilgrims in this world who are on a journey, eagerly waiting for the coming of Jesus our Savior, and seeing and using things as means for loving and serving God and one another.
Is that merely abstract, symbolic language? Not at all! We Christians are dual citizens: we vote and pay taxes in a republic, but our ultimate allegiance is to a king – Christ the King. The laws of God are much more important than the laws of mankind. For instance, because a government legalizes abortion does not make it any the less wrong for believers in God as the Author of all life. Jesus has said that he is meant to be the Light of our world, and that we are to see – to interpret – our world in the light of his teaching and that of his Church.
Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd, who died and rose for us, and appointed shepherds for his church, his people – Peter and the Apostles. They in turn appointed others to succeed them, Pope and the bishops. Bishops appoint priests as pastors to the people in the various parishes; they are co-workers with me, and with you, your shepherd here in St. Agnes Parish (the word for shepherd in Latin is “pastor”). Today we celebrate the installation of Fr. Ray Allender as the fourteenth pastor of St. Agnes Church. Father Allender is your guide and companion as you live out your life in Christ as Catholic Christians here in this parish day by day. The priest is a servant-leader of the people. As pastor, Father Allendar shares in the vision of the kingdom that we hear about today, the call to see things differently as followers of Jesus Christ.
That’s a complicated idea: servant-leader (cf. Mt. 20 and Mk. 10). After all, being a shepherd of people is not like being a shepherd of sheep! Father Allender is your leader, but he leads by serving, as Jesus did. The journey of faith you are on is his journey too; he gives you nothing in the Christian life that he doesn’t need as well.
On any Saturday, for example, Father Allender can go from a funeral to a baptism to a wedding to the Saturday evening Mass. It may be his second or third funeral that week, perhaps the seventh or eighth of the month, but it is the only time that a wife will bury her husband and children will bury their father, so he has to be as profoundly present to them as possible. The wedding may be the twentieth of the year, but it is the only wedding for that bride and groom (we fervently hope so!). Prayer, and the sense that Jesus Christ is acting through him and living in him, gives Father Allender the vision and the strength and the presence to serve and minister to them.
Father Ray needs to lead the saints and the sinners, the young and the old, the fervent and the fallen away, the poor and the rich and the in-between, the documented and the undocumented. He will share in their sorrows and their joys. That is his joy, his challenge and his consolation. Jesus Christ calls you to support Father with your prayers, your love and your encouragement. Each good pastor – and Father Ray Allender is a good pastor – is the best vocation program there is. Young men can see the difference he makes daily in the lives of Catholic families and all people, and perhaps can hear the call to go and do likewise.
This is a good occasion for me as Archbishop to thank the Society of Jesus – the Jesuits – for their collaboration with me in the ministry of pastoral service here at St. Agnes Church, and to thank them on behalf of the Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco for their ministries here, especially at the University of San Francisco, at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, and St. Ignatius Church.
In our gospel reading, Peter, James and John saw a vision of Jesus as divine Savior. Our faith in Jesus Christ means that we share that vision, and our faith demands our sacrifices to overcome sin and to embrace goodness in our lives. St. Paul says today: “Take as your guide those who follow the example we set.” When people look to us, they should not be “seeing things” in some weird sense, but we are called to live in such a way that they will see one thing in particular: a follower of Jesus the Lord.
By Archbishop George H. Niederauer
From March 5, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
