Each year on the Second Sunday of Lent, the Church
invites us to reflect on an account of the Transfiguration.Our theme for Lent in 2014 is “From These Ashes”. What connection
might the Transfiguration have with our theme of the Lenten Season for us as we continue to rise from the ashes?
On Ash Wednesday we set out on the Lenten journey with the Lord to
prepare to celebrate or renew our baptismal promises. We were invited to become
more God-centred people through prayer, more other-centred people through
almsgiving and less self-centred through acts of self-denial. Is the
proclamation of one of the Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration intended to
reassure us that this journey is important, even though we might be finding it
difficult, and that we should listen to Jesus as he calls us to share in His
suffering, death and resurrection?
The Transfiguration could well have been a sign from God intended to help Jesus and the disciples to trust that this is God’s plan for the salvation of the world. The disciples heard a voice from heaven assuring them that they should listen to Jesus even when His message was difficult. It must have been reassuring for Jesus to hear God call Him His beloved Son and to acknowledge that God was well pleased with Him.
One of the privileged ways in which God’s Beloved Son, Jesus, speaks to us today is through Sacred Scripture. John Powell, S.J in his 1974 Argus Communications book, He Touched Me, says that we have five antennae for listening :
The Mind: Jesus gives me his mind and heart so that I can judge as he judges and love as he loves. The questions he asks are addressed to me personally. The words of love, encouragement and challenge are directed to me. He confronts illusions that I might have about God as he reveals the Father to me. Sometimes this enlightenment comes to me after I reflect (meditate) on his words, but at other times it can come to me as a flash of new insight.
The Will: This is my spiritual motor and it has two gears: forward and reverse. The Word of God can deepen my desire to draw closer (the forward gear) to each of the persons of the Trinity and to all the people that I am called to love and serve. It can also deepen my desire to turn away from any sin (the reverse gear) which it might reveal to me.
The Emotions: When I am afraid God is inviting me to turn to God for courage. When I am angry or full of hatred, God could be calling me to forgive or to speak the truth in love to another. When I am feeling guilty. God is inviting me to seek forgiveness. When I am feeling despair, God can give me hope. When I am feeling loved, I can turn to God in gratitude. God desires to calm the storms of life which I experience and share with God. God is a God who comforts the afflicted but who also afflicts the comfortable.
The Imagination: When the passage from Scripture on which I am reflecting involves a saving action which Jesus is performing I can use my imagination to place myself right into the gospel scene and allow Jesus to touch me or to speak to me personally. Great things can happen when we do this.
The Memory: The Word of God can awaken gratitude in me when it reminds me of how I have experienced the saving actions of Jesus personally on my faith journey. At times it can also awaken the desire for conversion and forgiveness when it reminds me of my sinfulness.
“Let your
steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us
even as we hope
in you” (Psalm 33).