Only by stripping away the false and transitory can we see what is true and enduring. It is a powerful reminder that our Lenten self-denial is not negative for its own sake, but as a means to transform ourselves into the fully human person we are called to be. No wonder that the chant is triumphant it is a chant to accompany our entrance onto our own holy mountain, as the priest goes before us to ascend the altar of sacrifice on our behalf: Jesus Christ going to the cross to offer Himself to the Father. Fear is driven away when we can see the Lord as our true light and our salvation. The cross and resurrection of Jesus, pre-figured in his transfigured body, are now a living reality in our world. Confronted by the startling gap between the glory of God revealed in Jesus and our own sinfulness, we do not need to fall down in fear, as the apostles did on the mountain. (An English version is available at The psalm verse in the Introit speaks to this very directly. Leo the Great found in the Office of Readings for the day.
For a more thorough explanation of this, read the extract from a sermon of Pope St. We must not forget that it leads to His resurrection. Like the apostles, we will soon face the reality of the passion and death of the Lord. The Preface explains briefly why we need to hear this message today. Here again, as we saw last Sunday, the chants have a very uplifting and positive thrust, despite the fact that we are in Lent, the season of penance and sorrow for sin. The Lord is my light and my salvation whom will I fear? My heart said to You, I have sought Your countenance I will seek Your countenance again, Lord. Dominus illuminatio mea et salus mea: quem timebo? Tibi dixit cor meum, quaesivi vultum tuum, vultum tuum Domine requiram: ne faciem tuam avertis a me. We keep our feet solidly on the ground, even though we are on holy ground and reaching for the One Who Is beyond us. Heart is most often used in the Scriptures to represent the deepest dimensions of the human person, the font of life, the will, the desire, a type of understanding that surpasses that of the mind-although the liturgy tells us that the mind provides important underpinnings and support to the emotions of the heart that drive us and our behaviour. The words of the psalmist here are clear: it is my heart that seeks to contemplate God as he is. We reach for the heights to which the transfigured Jesus calls us and which he shows us are our destiny, if we really hear Him. The melody clearly portrays this with several sustained notes on the dominant do. In the Introit, Tibi Dixit cor meum, we sing in the ethereal Mode 3, which Guido D’Arezzo called mystical, as we contemplate the majesty of the face of God revealed to us in Jesus transfigured on the mountain. On the 2 nd of the Lenten Sundays, in the Ordinary Form, the chants echo those of the feast of the Transfiguration, which is the Gospel of the day.
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