2nd Sunday of Lent

Mount Arbel overlooks the Sea of Galilee and on a good day gives views to Mount Hermon and the Golan Heights. The view is not only spectacular but it is also a difficult mountain to climb. It allows people a way of overseeing the world and experiencing a moment when you can be close to God. In addition to this experience I have also climbed to the top of Mount Kosciusko. The journey up by the cable chair for a person does not like heights was not too traumatic. You face into the hill and it does not look too far to fall. On the way back you have a view which takes in the whole of the valley. Just as we took off from the top of the station the chair behind us stuck and we suspended between the edge of the ramp from which we had departed and were swinging back and forth between heaven and earth. There was a sense of fear that we could be here all day before the chair started again. What seemed like eternity was probably only a minute! I think we can grasp how Peter, James and John may have felt when they seemed to be so close to heaven!

Today’s Gospel allows to touch that eternal moment

                When Jesus is seen as the completion of the Law and the Prophets

                When the voice in the cloud speaks of him as a beloved son of God

                That we are called to listen to him.

In reading scripture we can often become confused by the many stories that we read and believe that the story of the original testament is different from that of the new. However, what the story of the transfiguration tells us is that there is a continuity of life and faith in God. What Jesus draws us to is an understanding of the heart of God who always reaches out to people. There is a divine will for us to encounter God.

The encounter with God on the mountain can often frighten us because it can seem that in an instant our life is placed in a new context. We can be unsure what to do next and where to turn we can fall back on activity to distract us from this fundamental relationship. The journey down the mountain is probably just as difficult if not more difficult because everything else seems to pale in significance compared to this experience. Also Jesus talks about his dying and rising. This can seem deeply confusing but we know that this is the mystery of the life we live. When we experience this reality for ourselves we start to discover that death is not the end that we thought it would be. There is a mystery of life that continues and draws us together. We see this not only in the many charities that make sense of people’s deaths but also the ability to rebuild after disaster. There is a sense that the transfiguration helps to recognize the God who does not abandon us but calls us to a deeper sense of the paschal mystery present in everyday life.

Receiving the message

In our modern age there is often much angst about communication. When we have multiple means of staying in touch via Email, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Websites, Radio and TV it is a struggle to see whether it the problem is actually with the amount of communication channels as the ability to receive the message. I think this is part of the struggle that we face in our current age, it is not that people are not trying to communicate but that too much information comes our way and we start to filter out what we do not think is immediately relevant to us. Our lives become ruled by sound bites or by other peoples opinions. There is a need to discover how we process the information that is relevant to us without becoming overwhelmed and being isolated in our own private realm. There is a need to listen to what is important rather than what seems most urgent. We need to be a people who pray and open our hearts to the people around us. I think the problem with the information we receive is not that it is broadcast but often we fear that it will pull us in too many directions at once. Often we can blame the people who produce the information for not providing us with a way through the forest of opinion that has grown about us. How can we stay in touch and not be overwhelmed. I think that at the end of each day we need to look back at what brought us life and hope. What led us away from our central mission and reason for being. What can we do tomorrow to bring us back. I believe that this examen prayer becomes more vital each day to allow us to listen to the voice of God which is spoken to us each day and whose message we need to receive.

1st Sunday of Lent

In Odette Churchill’s book based on her experience of the concentration camp at Ravensbrook reflects on how the presence of evil so present in war can infect those people who survive the war. She likens it to a parasite which can infest the person who seeks to destroy its host. It transfers from one to the other.

These sobering words always remain with me when I reflect on my own life. It is easy to see how the evil of another can lead you to respond to the person in kind. Evil can breed evil. Often when we confront this reality in our own hearts it can deeply disturb us. First, that we have discovered these tendencies inside ourselves but also to how we seek to resolve them.

This is at the heart of what we discover in the Gospel today.

                Two things are present:

                                The wild beasts that threaten to tear us apart

                                The angels sent to tend us.

We need to recognize the two realities which Jesus talks about when he goes into Galilee preaching repentance and believe in the Gospel.

It recognizes that unresolved sin can tear us and our community apart but also he recognizes this is not undertaking simply by a solitary gritting of teeth and facing the problem ourselves. It is an opening of our hearts and minds to a God who reconciles and forgives.

We know only too well when we face these temptations. It is almost like a beast seeks to devour us and have us for supper. It can consume all our thinking and actions. It can drive us in directions where our lives seem out of control.

These is one of the reasons why the three disciplines of prayer, fasting and alms giving our so valuable. It allows us time to spend with God to get our hearts and minds straight. It allows us to acknowledge the desires or appetites that can consume us and lastly it allows us to see how our lives can be open to the needs of others.

By this threefold discipline we can bring ourselves before God in reconciliation both acknowledging the difficulties we live with and also seeking healing. The two go together to help us live Christian lives for our own good and the good of our community.

Snowing in Israel

It is snowing in Israel

Putting aside some time to be with God allows us to centre our world and all our activities. Often the scariest part of beginning a journey is the first step. We can have an understanding of the destination and the path we are going to take. This is often part of our planning if only to know that we have a calendar or map which can chart our activities. However, while we can chart out our journey we need to engage with the reality of what it means to follow through step by step. There can be a temptation to keep looking at the calendar or map if only to make sure we are on course. However, if the map or the calendar become our reality we miss being in the present moment. Maps and calendars can assist us but should never dictate to us what is going to happen. The Lenten journey is becoming aware of what is happening within and around us. Coming closer to God opens not only our eyes and ears but also our hearts. May this Lenten season help you to discover a God who is passionate about you!

Preparing for Lent

I will be revisiting my experience of the spiritual exercises in my preparation for Easter. I believe the important thing about Lent is that it is not an endurance test but a way of helping us to encounter God. The essential ways of doing this are very traditional but also very profound. We are called to pray, fast, and give alms. These are not simply external actions they are called to flow from our own encounter with God. How we imagine God to be will shape these three actions. We are called to encounter God as God  is. This encounter needs to be honest and it calls us to reflect on how our lives seek to respond to God. Our prayer, therefore, needs to come before God as we are not as we think we should be. There is no point in putting masks on before God. We need to be honest and true about where we are up to in our lives. I hope that during this Lenten Season I may be able to share some of the ways that I have prayed that help me to take off those masks.
We also need to recognize those things that draw us into the light. Too often we can lives which are not reflective, where we just move from pillar to post. The call for fasting helps us to recognize those things or activities which do not bring life to others. It calls us to be people who are able to acknowledge the things that we do that can lead to dead ends and which lessen our ability to understand how God is present in all things.

Lastly, we are called to be people who do not live lives which are directed solely to our own interests. We are called to be people who share lives for the good of others. We are called to be people who live out the commandment to love God with all our hearts, mind, soul and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. We are called to be people who share our lives for the good of others. Always remember that Lent is not a solitary activity it is part of the mission of the Church. We are called to travel together.

Landing

Difficulty in landing in bad weather