“To the Lord our God belongs justice; to us, people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, to be shamefaced, as on this day” (Baruch 1:15)
These words from the prophet Baruch are not just a historical lament of the first wave of exiles to Babylon. It is not a “woe-is-me” indulgence. It is a realization that the choices they made have led them to this moment: exile. The people of Israel, in exile, finally recognize the root of their suffering: their refusal to listen to God, their stubbornness, and their idolatry. It’s a moment of collective repentance, a turning back to the Lord. They should be a mirror held up to every generation, including our own.
In Jesus’ time the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum were probably faithful people, no foreign gods among them. Where Baruch’s generation turned back to God, here and now, God turns to the people in the person of his Son who performed signs and miracles. But people are unmoved. They chose indifference to the grace that was evident to them. Jesus’ words are a lament of love rejected.
In our modern spiritual lives, these readings challenge us in two profound ways: having the courage to confess and an urgency to respond.
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This is the 2nd Sunday of Lent and each year on this day our gospel is taken from one of the accounts of the Transfiguration – this year we take it from Luke. It is the same gospel we hear every August 6th on the Feast of the Transfiguration. This year I began to wonder why we proclaim this gospel on this Sunday. Last week, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus’ temptation in the desert – well, that seems like a perfectly good start to the Lenten season. But why read the Transfiguration – why here on this 2nd Sunday of Lent? Is there a meaning, particularly Lenten, that we should hear and understand – apart from the meaning and message we would consider on August 6th? 
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