"Miracles and Revelations" - 2nd Sunday of Lent Homily by Deacon Ted

soon.

Anyone here ever have a miracle happen to them?

I don't need a show of hands.

Anybody ever experience a revelation like, wow, God's talking to me?

Well, I had a miracle happen to me 25 years ago.

I avoided a car accident that probably saved my life.

And when it happened, I was like, wow.

Why God?

Why did this happen to me?

Why did you save me?

And that thought has stayed with me for the 25 years.

And it's not very strong every day of my life, but when things come into my realm of existence, and I take note of them, I ask myself, is this it, God?

Is this why you saved me?

And it's okay to ask that question because we want to know.

We want to know why God did three things for us.

You know, so we look today's gospel.

here's James and Peter and John and being the apostles they are, they go up the mountain with Jesus to pray.

And Jesus is praying and they falls asleep.

Right?

I mean it seems like these three guys are always sleeping when a big event is going to happen.

But they wake up and what do they see?

God in His glory, Jesus in His glory, His body shining light.

And then they look and there's two other people with them, two other men.

Moses and Elijah.

And they're dumbfounded.

They don't know what to do.

And Peter says, it's a thing we're here.

Peter was always the obvious one.

But then, but then, the real miracle happens.

A cloud overcomes them.

And the voice of God speaks from the cloud and says, this, this is my beloved son, my chosen one.

Listen to him.

And they fall at the ground and they're just overwhelmed.

And when they wake up, everyone's gone.

Just Jesus.

And the last line shocks me.

That they felt silent at that time and told they did not tell anyone what they had seen.

If you experience God, wouldn't you want to tell people?

And so I go back to, have you ever had a revelation or a manifestation or a miracle?

Don't you want to tell people about it?

To share that?

Well, maybe not, because then you'd have to ask...

Why me?

Just like the apostles, I'm sure, coming down that mountain are asking, why?

Why did we get to see that?

Today you're going to experience something not exactly a miracle, but very close to it.

You're going to experience the prophets.

You're going to experience Jesus transformed.

You're going to experience the voice of God, and you're going to experience the Holy Spirit coming down on this altar.

You get to experience that every Sunday, I bet you don't walk out of here and say, why me?

Why did I get to experience that?

But you have to believe that all those things are happening right here today.

As soon as I'm done speaking.

So hurry up, Deacon.

Let me get on to Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the voice of God.

And I'm going to tell you that you've already heard from the prophets in the first reading.

You do so every Mass.

And you heard from God.

You heard from Jesus in the second reading.

Because the gospels are the voice of Jesus and what he did and what he said and what he's done and that is directed toward you.

And the Holy Spirit, when Father puts His hands over those gifts, and it's called the epilipsis, the Holy Spirit is coming down upon them and those gifts are starting to be

transformed and the bread and wine becomes body and blood.

It's not a transfiguration, it's a transubstantiation in that it changes from one form to the other.

and you get to experience it.

You and I get to experience it over and over and over again.

And we get to experience it so often it may become routine.

That it's Sunday, we're going to church.

And it's 11 o'clock and here we sit.

And then we'll go home.

But now I ask you to just pause for a minute and think about the great, not miracle, but as darn close to it as I can think, that is happening here and you are witnessing.

And think deeply because at the end of that, you're going to come to communion.

And either I or the Eucharistic ministers or Father is going to put a of Jesus in your hand or on your tongue.

And you are going to receive God in your body.

You're actually receiving God.

This isn't a manif- this isn't-

a recreation of something that happened a long time ago, this is actually happening.

So at the end of the day, I ask you to think about the gospel.

I ask you to think about Jesus and the apostles.

And you might ask yourself, why?

Why is this happening to me?

So very briefly, why did it happen to Peter?

Well, Peter needed the strength and needed to see it because he had to live through the passion.

More importantly,

He had to figure out what was going on during the Passion.

And he had to hold the other apostles together during it.

And then he went on to lead the church.

That's why Peter, that's why.

Why John?

John had to go through the Passion also.

But then John had to stand at the foot of the cross and receive Jesus' mother as his own.

and take her for the rest of her life.

He also had to write the Gospel of John, the Book of Revelations, the letters 1, 2, and 3 John, that we read that survived to this day informing us of what to do and how to think

and what happened.

Why John?

Why James?

That's a good one.

James was your average apostle.

He went forth and he started a church and he...

did what he was supposed to do as an apostle, nothing really fantastic besides that.

And I'd say James is our role model.

Because you and I, most of us, are pretty average in that we're not doing spectacular things, we're not being honored by countries, we're not changing the world.

But, but like James, we're doing our job.

And at the end of our life,

When we go and we put ourselves before God and we'll ask Him, why me?

And I think the answer will be, because I loved you.