25 February 2024 – 2nd Sunday of Lent (Year B)

by Cardinal Sebastian Francis

So on this beautiful Sunday morning after a lively celebration of Chap Goh Meh last night, I invite you to join me to pray for two events.

The first is a promise I made to the Members of the Elect in our Diocese. Members of the Elect are adults, not children, who choose to become Catholics, as adults and to be baptised. And there are about 250 of them in Kelantan, Kedah, Perlis, Perak, Penang. And I am told there are another 250 in Melaka-Johor. And today is the Rite of Election in the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, in Kajang. And Archbishop Julian told me maybe about 500. So our church seems to be alive. There are 1,000 adults who are making a conscious and free-choice as adults, not as children, to become Catholics, to be baptised and to be received into the church at Easter.

I made a promise to my 250 that I will remember them intentionally and consciously every day because as far as I am concern, they are the focus for Lent and Holy Week. And I invite all of you, especially as Cathedral parish, to have this bigger vision of the whole Diocese. That is why you are Cathedral. Okay? To join me in praying for the Members of the Elect.

Secondly, we received news from Germany of the death of a veteran missionary, German Brother of Mercy, Brother Wolfgang who is the pioneer who set up the Hospital Fatima in Ipoh, in our Diocese. The brothers are still there, the hospital is still running and it is part of the mission of our Diocese. And he passed away in Germany. His funeral will be on Tuesday in Germany. We are sending a small delegation for the funeral, together with Monsignor Michael Cheah.

And I told them that I will offer the Mass here at 10.30am in the Cathedral for the soul of Brother Wolfgang. And he is a pioneer, missionary from Germany, leaves Germany to come and work here in Penang, in Ipoh, and the mission continues. That is the beauty of the Church. The mission continues. So we have named a wing of Fatima Hospital in his honour and it is called the Brother Wolfgang Oncology Wing of Fatima Hospital.

So we remember him and thank God for the missionaries who laid the foundations. If we are enjoying whatever we are enjoying here, it is because a lot of people worked very hard behind the scenes. In the last fifty years since this Diocese, or more, was formed. I think it was 60 or 70 years. So anyway, that is business over. Now let us get to the Gospel.

So the Gospel introduces us to a key figure who is very precious to many, many, many people of faith. And he is called Abraham. And both Jesus and Saint Paul refer to him as our Father in the Faith. And in this gentleman, in this patriarch called Abraham, we see the coming together of faith, obedience, blessings and promises. And he is told at a very old age actually that he will be, his descendants, will be as many as the stars in the heavens and as sands on the seashore.

And who are his descendants? I do not know whether you are aware that theologically and scripturally, and spiritually, you and I are descendants of Abraham. And he has many, many more descendants. Well, technically his descendants are the Jews, and also the Arabs, and also the muslims, and also the Christians, and also the Catholics, and also people who welcome the faith and the spirituality of Abraham. And that is a lot of people, including us. Of course, are we as many as the stars of heaven? I don’t know because scientists themselves do not know how many stars there are. It keeps increasing. It is almost quasi-infinite. Okay never mind the numbers.

And one thing we are told that if this promise was fulfilled and there is no if, it has been fulfilled, there are many, many people who look to him as their pioneer, as their founder, as a descendant of Abraham. And that includes Jesus. Okay? And we are told in the Reading today that whatever happened after his faithfulness, is the reward of his obedience. So I suggest that in our spirituality, we move back to obedience as the key to give you the freedom to move forward. Obedience, not some childish obedience but the obedience of Abraham and of course, Jesus and others.

So let us move on. Let us go to the Gospel. In the Gospel, the key text today, especially to push the Members of the Elect who will be reflecting very much on this, is the Transfiguration. As you may know, it happened in Mount Tabor. And who are the players here? 3 apostles went up there with Jesus to Mount Tabor when this event took place. And we are told those 3 guys, Peter, James and John who were physically present and who witnessed this transfiguration.

And it is important to know the chronology that this is happening before the passion and death of Jesus in Calvary. Before, not after. So it is preparing Him for the future. That is why the transfiguration is given today, as a preparation for the Members of the Elect, to prepare them for the future, their baptism at Easter. The church had calculated all this and we have a logic behind everything we do.

And there are other players there. Elijah and Moses. Now this is very interesting because Moses is dead and gone. Elijah is dead and gone like so many of our ancestors, gone. Moses lived 1,400 years before Christ. That means if you plus 2,000 now, 3,400 years lebih kurang before Christ. And he is there! And the second person there is Elijah. And Elijah lived 900 years before Christ. And he is there! Well, these guys don’t die! That is the story. And that is what is going to happen to you and me after we finish our mission and move on. So don’t cling on.

These guys, the Saints, don’t die. And we are told that a conversation is going on between Jesus, Elijah and Moses. And I was curious to find out what is this conversation. What are they talking about? One guy 1,400 years before Christ, the other guy 900 years before Christ and they are sitting there and having a conversation. And I read somewhere that the conversation was maybe was something like this:-

Moses and Elijah were speaking to Jesus about His coming passion and death and all He was to fulfill in Jerusalem. And this has not happened yet. That is the point! You miss that point, you miss the whole beauty of this story. And they were talking to Him and preparing Him for His coming passion and death at Calvary and what will happen in Jerusalem when He goes down from Mount Tabor and prepares to climb down Calvary.

And of course as usual what are the 3 apostles doing? They are sleeping and they are shaken up. They have no clue what is going on. So don’t spiritualise everything. This is what is going on as far as the text is concern. And Mark who tells us the story of the transfiguration has a very funny way of saying what Peter spoke up:
‘Aiyoh so nice to be here, you know. Let us build 3 monuments.’

Peter is talking almost nonsense. Okay? Jesus is not interested in monuments. Of course, we build basilicas and cathedrals. That is fine. And Mark tells us Peter did not know what he was talking. That is the bottomline. Sometimes we too do not know what we are saying. We need to ponder. And we are told one more thing about these 3 apostles. They were afraid. There is Jesus, wah, glory, beauty, majesty and these 3 guys are afraid. Well, I hope maybe your story and my story is a little like that. Okay?

So anyway, we forget about what Peter said because it is irrelevant. But it is recorded. That is irrelevant. Okay. As far as Jesus is concern, as far as the plan to move forward is concern, it is not about building monuments. I am not against building churches and basilicas. We are in the process of building several actually, in Permatang Tinggi, Jelapang, Buntung Tiga and God knows where because of the needs of our people.

So finally there is a voice that is mentioned in the transfiguration text. It is just said it is a voice. Now you and I got to figure out who is behind the voice. And what did the voice say? Then you will understand who spoke. The voice said: ‘This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.‘

That is it.

And of course we conclude that it is the voice of God the Father. You know fathers, even today I observe, don’t speak too much. We leave the speaking to others. Fathers have become rather quiet these days. Because you seem to be like God the Father, You leave all the talking to the spouse, to the wife. I am just joking. Fathers have become rather quiet.

God the Father is a little bit like you. He speaks very little. In fact, in the whole of the New Testament, He spoke only twice and it was recorded. Once He spoke at the baptism of Jesus. The second He spoke at the Transfiguration of Jesus. After that, He is quiet. Do you know why He is quiet? Because He said enough. What did He say? Both at the baptism and the transfiguration, He simply said: This is my beloved Son. He clarifies the identity first. You better know who is speaking to you. And He speaks with the authority and the identity that He carries in Himself.

This is my beloved Son. It is about the identity of Jesus. Secondly, because he is my beloved Son, please listen to him. And we have not stopped listening and we will continue listening. That is the best of being church. The best part. Not what we do, do, do, do and get tired of doing but we listen before we do. If you do without listening, you are going to get tired. You are going to get burnt out. You are going to get disillusioned sooner or later.

So I leave you with this beautiful image of the Father who seldom speaks. And this time, today, when He spoke, He just said one sentence, maybe two:-

This is my beloved Son.
Please listen to him.

Amen.

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