Lent has its origins in the final preparation of catechumens for Initiation at the Paschal Vigil. This last phase of the catechumenate is called the period of “Purification and Enlightenment.” For those of us already baptized, each year we are invited to renew and deepen our living out of our baptism. So, as we accompany the catechumens, Lent is a time for us also to be purified and enlightened.

On this Second Sunday of Lent we hear the Gospel of the Transfiguration, in which Peter, James, and John ascend Mount Tabor with Jesus, and there see him radiant with the divine light. His clothes a dazzling white, such as no fuller could bleach them (purification), and his face shining like the sun (enlightenment). And the Collect prayer of today’s Mass is “that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory.”

These are two essential elements of baptism. Emerging from the cleansing bath of water and the Holy Spirit, the neophyte receives a white garment – symbolizing purification – and a candle lit from the Paschal Candle – symbolizing enlightenment.

We find this twofold movement of purification and enlightenment, this upward journey, in all the spiritual authors. St. Augustine writes, “Our minds must be purified so that they are able to perceive that light and then hold fast to it” (On Christian Doctrine). St. Anselm prays, “Raise me up from my own self to You. Purify, heal, make sharp, illumine the eye of my soul so that it may see You” (Proslogion). Later on the great Carmelites, St. Teresa and St. John, steeped in the same spiritual tradition, write of the Purgative and the Illuminative way.