Lent Sun 2, C March 13, 2022
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
“Stay woke.” Perhaps you’ve heard some variation of this phrase. Maybe it’s a positive thing to you or maybe you think of it as a kind of insult. Like so many catchphrases, the meaning has shifted over time and it means different things to different people. It was originally meant to encourage people to stay alert to what is really going on behind the scenes… to see past what “the man” tells you. Or it’s being sensitive to injustices that permeate our society and go unnoticed by most people. The point is that it’s a play on the idea of waking up to see the truth.
And like so many things in human culture, it has both light and dark, truth and error mixed into it. In this case, there’s an echo of precisely the truth we hear from the Gospel now. While praying on the mountain with Jesus, Peter, John, and James fall asleep. But when Jesus is gloriously transfigured, we’re told that, “becoming fully awake, they saw his glory.” This is both a literal event and an important symbol for what all Christians are called to do.
To see his glory… that is exactly how heaven is described… it is the way scripture often talks about eternal life: seeing God face-to-face. And the real goal of this life, the purpose of our existence is to strive for this to happen. We learn something important from the way it happens here. The apostles don’t wake themselves up. The revelation of Jesus Christ wakes them up. He radiates his glory and then they wake up and see. Then it is revealed to them by the Father that this is his chosen son.
Confused at this, Peter wants to build tents to stay here. On some deep level, this resonates with the purpose of his existence. He knows that this glory, this radiance of God’s goodness and love is what he wants to live for. He’s basically right, only he’s getting ahead of himself. The place of dwelling in that glory, of basking in that radiance is in heaven. This is just a foretaste designed to wake him up and keep him on the path that leads there. That path is an “exodus,” just like Moses and Elijah are talking about during this miraculous event. An exodus out of sin and injustice… out of this fallen world and into glory.
But we human beings have trouble believing that. Food, drink, money, pleasure, power – there are so many things in this world that promise happiness. Indeed, many of them do give us a temporary form of happiness and deep enjoyment. This is why St. Paul warns the Philippians and us against those who act as though “their god is their stomach” because “their end is destruction.” “Their minds are occupied with earthly things.” But what St. Paul knows… what Peter, John, and James learn here is that “our citizenship is in heaven.”
That’s where the error and shadow come into the idea of wokeness. All too often, this concept or movement gets caught up a material idea of the perfect world. When people say they want to eliminate all poverty or all suffering, they set up an impossible goal. When we act as though we have the power to right every wrong and correct every error, we are falling prey to the very same trap Satan used at the beginning with Adam and Eve. We are trying to set ourselves up as God. In a sad twist of irony, those who believe they can make a perfect society on earth are those most likely to do the greatest of evils.
In most cases, what we want is good in some way: and end to racism, an end to poverty and hunger, an end to crime, an end to diseases. But when we “make tents” on that one good thing, we tend to lose the perspective that takes into account other good things. Because this world is fallen and broken, some things cannot be completely fixed without being willing to break something else. Communism tries to end poverty but ends up killing people to get it. Zero tolerance policies try to end crime, but end up slandering, imprisoning, or even executing innocent people. Seeing everything through the lens of racism tends to encourage division and actually increase racist tendencies.
Here again we run up against the divine paradox that Jesus summarizes so well: those who would save their life will lose it and those who lose it for his sake will save it. Vast swaths of those people we call “saints” were far more successful at addressing injustice and suffering precisely because they saw themselves as citizens of heaven. When they let go of the idea of “making [their] tents” in this world, when they were willing to let go of this world for the sake of the next, they were better able to actually respond to evil and injustice. Mother Teresa’s care for the poor came from her love of heaven. John Paul II brought down communism without violence precisely because he gave people a vision of a world beyond this one.
And this is at the heart of Lent: to wake up! We deny ourselves things of this world to help us better see the things of the next. We give away our wealth to remind us that we are in communion with others. We pray… we climb the mountain to be with Jesus, to put ourselves into a place where we can see God’s glory manifest, where we can see past our stomachs and wallets to the real meaning of life.
“Wokeness” is a loaded term, fraught with all-too-human politics, but there is a point in it. There is a reason it’s taken hold. We know something is missing in this world. We know that we need to wake up, to see more clearly in order to find happiness.
Well, we have what’s missing right here. “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.” And he tells us in a thousand different ways that we are citizens of heaven, not of earth. This world is not your home… the land promised to Abraham in the first reading is a symbol of the eternal land. But, precisely because we are citizens of heaven, we should be awake. Only God will right every wrong, but a citizen of heaven still strives for justice. The poor you will always have with you, but a citizen of heaven still responds to poverty with love every time. This is one reason a citizen of heaven practices self-denial; so they can see the needs of others. If you do not see them, then you lie to yourself when you claim to see Jesus. Love of God does not exist without love of neighbor.
A week and a half into Lent, have you messed up yet? Fallen asleep on the meaning of the season? Wake up! See his glory manifest in the scriptures, the lives of the saints, and in the liturgy. Listen to Jesus speaking through St. Paul. Be a citizen of heaven. Fast so you have something to spare for to those in need. Give alms by working for justice. Pray so that you see his glory and remember why we’re here: not to make a home on earth, but to bring earth into heaven. How? By following the one road to real glory: the Cross.