Sleep plays an important role in the two great episodes of today's readings. In the Gospel, after a time of sleep, Peter, James and John glimpse the divine glory of Christ at the Transfiguration. And in the first reading, just before God makes a covenant with Abraham, we are told that "a deep sleep [le] invaded". It seems as if, in our weak and fallen human state, the divine glory is more than we can bear. Just as our body begins to fail under extreme conditions, so our soul seems to fail in the presence of divine power. No wonder, then, that we need a special grace, the elevation of our nature, in order to enjoy the Beatific Vision in heaven.
The Gospel says: "Peter and his companions were falling asleep, but they woke up and saw his glory and the two men who were with him.". Lent also demands that we wake up to God, that we wake up from our laziness, in order to better see his glory. So delightful is this glory that Peter seems almost delirious and expresses to Jesus ("I didn't know what I was saying."), their desire to prolong the experience.
The second reading also speaks of glory and contrasts two possible forms of it: an earthly bad glory, that of those who glory in their shame and make of their own shame the glory of the earthly glory. "their God, the womb"and the true glory of heaven, where Jesus "he will transform our lowly body after the pattern of his glorious body.". We could indulge our body and seek shameful pleasures and celebrity, which will lead us to hell: "his whereabouts is doom". Or we can submit our body, especially in the Lenten penances, in the hope of its eternal glorification in heaven. Self-indulgence only makes us lazy for the things of God. Proper self-denial makes us more attentive to the spiritual.
Thus, today's readings encourage us to emerge from the lethargy of spiritual drowsiness - how often we are drowsy and distracted in our prayer - and from the sluggishness of self-indulgence to experience the glory of God. We can glimpse it on earth, as the three disciples on the mountain glimpsed it, but its full enjoyment comes in heaven. As today's psalm tells us: "I hope to enjoy the joy of the Lord in the land of life."
