Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/032011.shtml
Every year, after taking us on the 1st Sunday of Lent into the Desert, the Liturgy takes us on the 2nd Sunday of Lent to the Mountain Top. The Liturgy does this every year.
And we can ask ourselves, why? Why does it do that when Lent is commonly understood as a 40 day "Desert Experience" reminding us of Jesus’ 40 days in the Desert at the very beginning of his public ministry and of the Israelites’ 40 year trek in the Desert before reaching the Promised Land. So why is it that almost immediately after placing us in the Desert at the beginning of Lent, does the Liturgy then take us out of the Desert again and place us, of all places, on the Mountain Top?
I think it has to do with the symbolic meanings of both the Desert and the Mountain top.
The Desert is a dry, arid place where one can lose hope or get lost. There may be times in our lives when we may feel that we are wondering through a giant Desert with no purpose.
Thus it is perhaps important that we don’t stay in the Desert for a long period of time. Sure the experience of the Desert can help us to get by with less, but to stay in the Desert too long can make us despair.
So the Liturgy takes us up to the Mountain Top this Sunday, and the Mountain top is very different from the
Desert because from the Mountain Top we get a view. We can better see where we are going, what awaits us, and thus be given some assurance that our journey will not be in vain.
Mountain tops are also places where people across cultures have felt closer to God.
In the Bible, Moses received the 10 Commandments from God on Mount Sinai. He also was given a view of the Promised Land from Mount Nebo. He himself was not allowed to travel into the Promised Land, but he was able to see the Israelites, after 40 years in the Desert, crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land from Mount Nebo. Elijah also found God – in a whisper – on Mount Carmel. David made the capital of Israel Jerusalem a "city set on a hill," and his son Solomon, built the Temple at the top of that hill, Mount Zion. Jesus then preached the Beatitudes, from "The Mount."
So Mountains and Mountain tops were important in the Bible.
But they have been important religiously across all many cultures. The Shrine to Our Lady of Czestahowa in Poland is located on a hilltop called Jasna Gora (Holy Mountain). Juan Diego first saw are Lady of Guadalupe on the hilltop of Tepeyac. In my parents’ country the largest Marian shrine was located about 20 kilometers -- a day’s walk -- from the village that my dad’s family came from. Where was this shrine located? On Svata Hora (again Holy Mountain) outside of the Czech town of Pribram.
Then all kinds of pre-Christian cultures built pyramids, artificial mountains, often with Temples built at their summits. Why? Mountaintops seem to make people feel "closer to God."
So in the Gospel Reading we hear of Jesus taking three of his three disciples – Peter, James and John up to the top of a mountain (by tradition, Mount Tabor). And there he gives them a glimpse of his Glory. The three see Moses (representing the Law) and Elijah (representing the Prophets) talking to Jesus. And this seems to be a way that Jesus wanted to indicate to at least these three disciples of his that what they gave up to follow him was worth it, that what they will gain from following him will more than compensate what they lost. And this seemed important to show them because Peter did ask at one point in the Gospels "Master, we gave up everything to follow you ..." asking in effect would it be worth it. In the glory of the Transfiguration, these three disciples were able to experience at least for a moment the Glory of what is to come and receive the answer that they were looking for, that indeed it was/would be worth it.
****
Now we can then ask ourselves, where/when do we feel closest to God. And it could be in Nature, hiking in fact in the mountains, or perhaps along the Lake. It could be doing something that we love. Jesus’ disciples often found Jesus while fishing – four of the first Apostles were fishermen afterall, and probably loved it.
But if we then scratch our heads thinking about this question, where do we feel ourselves closed to God, and with some embarrassment can’t come up with an easy answer, we can remember that the Church tells us that HERE, during the Mass, is a place that the Church itself vouches that one can experience God.
Here, we come together, we sing God’s praises, we hear God’s Word, we reflect on it during the time of the Homily, we present our petitions to our God and then we celebrate the Eucharist, the memorial of what Jesus did for his apostles during his last supper when he took bread, broke it and told them that this was His Body and then took the Cup filled with Wine and told them that this was His Blood. We remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us and are asked to be fed by his Body and Blood afterwards to give us strength for the week ahead.
We’re told by the Church that the Eucharist is both the source and summit of our Faith. It is in fact where we can encounter God.
So if we depressed sometime, let us remember that we get together here every Sunday for Mass, indeed every day, and it is here that we can receive both God’s Word and God’s nourishment to face whatever we need to face outside.
And let us remember that God does not want us to simply "search for God in an empty place" that God does not want us to wander aimlessly through life as if it has no meaning but, in fact, wishes to be close to us, both personally and with the whole community here in the Church.
May God bless you all, and may this Lent be a time of blessing when we can come to feel closer to God. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment