FIRST THINGS FIRST
AND NOW FOR THE HOMILY
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,
and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Luke 9
What
a difference a few years make! Depressed by the sexual abuse scandal and feeling
unsupported in my work as a Vocation Director, this time of the year in 2004 I
was at an all-time low. News about the sexual abuse scandal was so bad that I asked for some time off to regain my
balance. I needed to pull myself together and get some clarity about what to do
next. I spent the whole month of February that year, alone, in a small cottage,
on a deserted beach, in northern Florida. I probably spoke to one person that whole month. I loved it. I got my clarity. I went from having one of the worst
years of my life, to one of the best years of my life. Even though things have
gotten even worse, I can now handle the constant drip of bad news much better now. I guess you can get used to
anything!
Last
week, we read about Jesus going off into the desert, alone, for forty days. He,
too, was looking for clarity about what it might mean for him to be “God’s
beloved Son,” an insight he had received from God at the time of his baptism.
That time-in-the-desert took place at the beginning of his ministry. It
was followed by many trips to quiet places, during his ministry, to seek
clarity from God about what he was supposed to do next.
Today,
we fast-forward to the end of Jesus’ life, the time before his final entry into
Jerusalem for his crucifixion, death and resurrection. At this point in his
ministry, Jesus could read the handwriting on the wall and it spelled
SUFFERING, in big letters. This time he went to the mountain, to get final
clarity on whether this impending suffering was really the right thing. The
question Jesus wanted an answer to, was not “what do I want to do” or “what do
people want me to do,” but “what does God want me to do?”
Just
as a desert is a good place for introspection, a mountain is a good place for
perspective. In a desert, there is nothing to distract you. You are forced to
look within. On a mountain, you can see in all directions at once. On the
mountain, Jesus got a glimpse of the past, the present, the future and how
they all fit together. On the mountain
Jesus was able to “see the connections” between where he was, where he came
from and where he was going.
(1)
Jesus saw his connection to the past. Israel’s two great heroes appear to him
and talk with him: Moses and Elijah. They told Jesus that indeed he was the one
they had, centuries ago, dreamed of and had foretold would someday come. They
told Jesus that he was indeed on the right path and that he should indeed proceed
onward. If their word was not enough, from a cloud, God repeats the words that
he spoke to Jesus at his baptism, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
(2)
Jesus saw his connection to the future.
The words used to describe Jesus’ clothes becoming “white as light” are
the same words used of his clothes at the resurrection. His “white as light” clothing, gave him a glimpse
of the glory to come. It helped him get a sneak preview of what was going to be
on the other side of the suffering he was about to endure.
(3)
Jesus saw his connection to the present, where he was on his journey. He tells
his disciples, flattened with fear, that there was nothing to be scared of,
even though they had to go down from the mountain and go through the pain
ahead. This experience would help them through what was about to happen. In
fact, this is where we get the expression “peak experience.” A “peak
experience” is one of those magical times of spiritual experience that people,
like good old St. Peter, like to hold onto or repeat again, but cannot. They
are simply “glimpses of glory” and “sneak previews” of heaven itself. They are
not meant to be permanent. They are meant to get us through the hard
times.
Going
off to the desert, going off to the mountains, going off to the beach or simply
going off to your room to listen to yourself think, to listen to your heart of
heart, to listen to God is an absolute necessity for those who would follow
Jesus. The place is not important, but
the listening is! If you listen with your
heart, you will get the clarity you need, no matter what questions you need to
answer or problems you need to face.
No
wonder so many in our culture seems to be so confused: our world is so crammed
with noise that we cannot hear ourselves think.
We have been raised to believe that answers come when we can say what we
want to do or when others tell us what we need to do. The only thing that will
make us happy and get us back on our path is when we want what God wants
for us. The desert, beach, mountain or
our room are just places of quiet, places quiet enough to hear that tiny
whispering voice of God himself, deep within our own hearts. Lent, I believe,
is not so much about giving up things as it is about giving up the constant noise
that prevents us from hearing ourselves think!
No
wonder our culture seems so confused: our ears are being blasted with constant
noise from cell phones, earphones and an over-saturation of electronic
stimulation. No wonder our culture seems so confused: we consult our horoscopes
and seek out expensive advice gurus, but we don’t take the time to go to the
quiet and listen to ourselves. We are
driven to fill the quiet, to kill the quiet or to run from
the quiet, as if the quiet were our worst enemy. But the truth of the matter is, it is in the
quiet that we get our bearings, clarity is given to us and a sense of who we
are, and where we are going, is shown to us.
My friends, the message today is simple: make friends with the quiet. In the
quiet, everything falls into perspective, the path becomes clear and where we
need to go becomes obvious. And to stay on the right path, we have to go
to the quiet often, regularly and routinely, just as Jesus had to do!
