Each year during the second Sunday of Lent we hear the gospel of the Transfiguration, this year from the Gospel of Mark. In it, the Church asks us at the beginning of the Lenten Season to experience, like the first Apostles, “a taste of te Jesus’ Glory” before we continue our long Lenten journey. Perhaps it is a sort of a “booster shot” as we enter into a period of repentance, of prayer, and almsgiving to call us closer to the ways of Christ.

The season of Lent is a Catholic liturgical season consisting of forty days of fasting, prayer, and penitence Beginning on Ash Wednesday and concluding at sundown on Holy Thursday. The official liturgical color for the season of Lent is violet. Lent began on February 14, 2018. The observance of Lent is related to the celebration of Easter. In the first three centuries of the Christian era, most Christians prepared for Easter by fasting and praying for three days

The first issue to deal with in today’s first reading (LV 13) is the meaning and context of the phrase “shall keep his garments rent.” In Biblical terms, to “rent” is to tear or rip, as in a sign of mourning or sinfulness. When added to "The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!' As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp—we see the Gospel today set up to explain the healing power of Jesus in the here and now.