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Gospel Reflection 20070304

Share inner peace.
Often our hearts want peace but our heads won't leave us alone. Our heads are like a 24-hour movie. The show never stops. The tapes keep playing. Upsets, troubles and tragedies cling to our minds. These rough commanders of our attention trouble us and destroy our hope for inner tranquility. If we want inner peace, we must release our minds from mental debates.

The first step is to let go of our anxieties. Holding on to them heals nothing. Letting go begins the process of gaining inner peace. Then, treat yourself to some quiet each day. Quiet time restores energy. Third, remember that good behavior follows peace, not the other way around.

At the Last Supper, Jesus promised us inner peace. To receive that, we will need to bind ourselves to him as intimately as a branch is to a vine.

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Behold Christ, Your Life
March 4, 2007

Second Sunday of Lent

Luke 9:28b-36
Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." But he did not know what he was saying. While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my chosen Son; listen to him." After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen.


Already, before his transfiguration, Jesus gave his apostles some bad news about how he was destined to suffer and be put to death, and then be raised up again. In the Bible, just before today’s transfiguration reading, Jesus said to his disciples (Luke 9:22), “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” The disciples must have wondered what kind of leader they had been following who was going to suffer and be killed. And he wasn’t making any sense talking about rising on the third day!
Then Jesus continued by saying (Luke 9:23), “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Take up a cross? The disciples must have thought that their old fishing jobs were looking pretty good.
Many of us are have learned to depend on ourselves, to look for good jobs so we can enter more actively into consumerism and buy ourselves happiness. Eventually we come to realize that we are not in full control. Daily crosses eventually creep in, even when we try to ignore them. Perhaps our health begins to fade, a loved one dies, or we notice and begin to walk with the poor when realizing the heavy cross they bear on a daily basis.
Lent is a time to reflect on taking up our crosses. We may be able to ignore our little crosses today, but bigger ones are on the horizon. We do not have an infinite horizon to sail toward; the real horizon is always getting closer even when we don’t notice it or choose to ignore it.
In today’s reading, it has been eight days since Jesus announced that he will suffer. It is the “scandal of the cross” that weighs heavily upon the hearts of his friends. Jesus knows that they need an experience of his glory to encourage them. At the same time, he takes them along a rough path to the summit of Mount Tabor for this revelation because intimacy with Jesus always takes an effort. With them, we need to leave behind the things that are below, the worldly things, to contemplate Jesus on high.
Having made the effort to conquer the mountain summit, the apostles are not disappointed with what awaits them. Jesus is transfigured before their eyes, taking on a radiance unlike anything on earth. As if that were not enough, he appears with two of the greatest figures of the Old Testament: Moses and Elijah. However, Jesus’ conversation with Moses, who gave Israel God’s Commandments, and Elijah, who prophesied to bring Israel’s heart back to God, turn to the events of Christ’s approaching passion. The message is clear: It is necessary to take up Jesus’ cross in order to share in his glory.
Overwhelmed by what he sees, Peter says that they should make three tents: one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. He forgets to consider that it would also be good for his companions and himself to live in this glory. At that moment, a cloud, representing the Holy Spirit, comes over them and the voice of the Father is heard. Suddenly, they are then left in the best of company, that of Jesus alone. Now they know him better. They have experienced him and what he offers to his faithful friends. They desire it with all their hearts and are ready to face the way of the cross to get there.
No sooner is Jesus down from the mountain, after today’s transfiguration reading that, he repeats the same bad news he just did earlier (this time Luke 9:44 - 45). “"Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men." But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.“
So St. Luke's Gospel gives us bad news first, good news in today’s transfiguration reading, followed by more bad news. On that basis alone what are we to make of what his apostles were thinking: surely, they must think he has got it wrong; how can somebody like Jesus be transfigured in the way that he was so that now his life will be subject to the whim of mere mortals as to whether he is going to live or die? And yet it will be on another mountain that his apostles and every generation since then will have to learn that it is in the blood of the cross that all who believe in his name will have salvation.
During the season of Lent there is a great deal of talk about change and transformation. To often we think of this life-long process as a private affair between God and the individual (the Thee and Me syndrome). We come to think of conversion as a highly personal experience, which is kept in the secret chambers of our hearts.
Such is not the case. Transformation and the following of Jesus is a deeply social and community experience. Others are influenced by what we say, do and feel. This is especially true for those who are entrusted with moral leadership in the home and in the faith community (parish and church). Lent is a good time for healthy introspection and an examination of conscience and lifestyle. We live at such a fast pace and often without the time for silent reflection. We find ourselves living the unexamined life. The modern pace can easily carry us along with many other important things. However, we can often overlook the one thing that is essential ---- life with Jesus. What does such a lifestyle teach those entrusted to our care? Are we sensitive to the impressions we give and the lessons we teach with our works and deeds? It is often the unguarded and off-stage moments of our lives that provide clear insights into our character. We can say that values are not only taught but caught. We pick them up and send them out in conscious and unconscious ways. The disciples in our Gospel were present at the Transfiguration of Jesus. Luke tells us that when the episode ended “the disciples kept quiet, telling nothing of what they had seen to anyone.” We modern disciples must be about proclaiming the transfigured, disfigured and resurrected Jesus. We must live that quality of witness, which allows us to proclaim, in honesty, “Be imitators of us for we know the Lord Jesus. We eagerly await the coming of our Savior.”

posted by Mike Young @ 3:07 PM