The Transfiguration

Second Sunday in Lent

Matthew 17:13
Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shown like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah; talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. "While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son; the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!"

Jesus' going up the mountain to be transfigured points to the transformation that we receive on the spiritual journey after a time of purification. After enduring the inner desert of purification, God refreshes us with transforming experiences. The mountain of the Transfiguration is not just a place of retreat. it symbolizes the experience of spiritual awakening that is the purpose of the practice of contemplative prayer.

The first clear indication that contemplative prayer is becoming established in oneself is the attraction to solitude. This attraction comes from the refining of our faculties through the dismantling of our emotional programs for happiness and the consequent reduction of the static that they cause as everyday life keeps frustrating them. In this event the emotional programs of the three apostles have been left on the plain, so to speak, at least temporarily. Their attraction to solitude is symbolized by Jesus leading them up the mountain. It is the first sign of their spiritual awakening.

We begin to access the mystery of God's presence through a similar attraction, even though the particular mountain we are on--a retreat or our daily period of prayer--may not bring us any satisfaction whatsoever. Like an irresistible magnet, the attraction for solitude draws us without our knowing where it is coming from. We wait patiently upon God day after day in prayer and stumble along in our ordinary occupations.

On this holy mountain, Jesus exploded into a presence that overwhelmed the disciples. . . . Jesus turned into light; even his clothes became saturated with it. A kind of glory suffused itself into their senses both inward and outward. If we perceive the divine presence in some facsimile to this clarity, we are fascinated, absorbed, and delighted. Peter's response was to want to stay there forever The more profound the experience of union, the more one cannot help but wish to prolong it.

Just as the disciples are beginning to experience the delight of the divine presence in the person of Jesus, a cloud suddenly overshadows them. The cloud is the symbol of the unknowing that we enter as a habitual state through the regular practice of contemplative prayer. Suddenly a voice from the cloud resounded, saying, "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." Listen not just to his words to which they had been listening when they were on the plain, but "listen to him," the divine person who is speaking to you. Listen to the divine presence that is incarnate in this human being. Listen to the infinite Silence out of which the incarnate Word emerges and to which it returns.

The grace of the Transfiguration is not just a vision of glory, an isolated experience of divine consolation, how· ever exalted. Of course, such an experience has immense value. But its primary purpose is something greater: to empower us to live in the presence of God and to see the radiance of that presence in all events, people, the cosmos, and in ourselves.

~Reawakenings

Prayer

O Holy Spirit, free us from all the emotional
programs for happiness that feed our false 
selves and grant us the restfulness of 
detachment from their restless energy.

Original Sin

Monday of the Second Week in Lent

Daniel 9:4-6

Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments, we have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside, from your commandments and ordinances. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.

The term "original sin" is a way of describing the universal experience of coming to full reflective self consciousness without the certitude of personal union with God. This gives rise to our intimate sense of incompletion, dividedness, isolation, and guilt. The cultural consequences of these alienations are instilled in us from earliest childhood and passed on from one generation to the next. The urgent need to escape from the profound insecurity of this situation, when unchecked, gives rise to insatiable desires for pleasure, possessions, and power. On the social level, it gives rise to violence, war, and institutional injustice.

The particular consequences of original sin include all the self serving habits that have been woven into our personalities from the time we were conceived; all the harm that other people have done to us knowingly or unknowingly at an age when we could not defend our selves; and the methods we acquired, many of them now unconscious, to ward off the pain of unbearable situations. This constellation of prerational reactions is the foundation of the false self. The false self develops in opposition to the true self. Its center of gravity is the self as separate from God and others, and hence turned in on itself.

~Invitation to Love

Prayer

Creator Spirit, You have bestowed on us 
our basic human goodness which nothing can 
destroy. Give us the grace to overcome every 
obstacle from without and every evil inclination 
from within, to being fully human and to 
becoming divinized by Your transforming Love.

Deep Listening

Tuesday of the Second Week in Lent

Isaiah 1:10

Hear the word of the Lord, 
    you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God, 
    you people of Gomorrah!

Christ is the full expression of the Father. Jesus, the humanity of Christ, is the full manifestation of all that the Father is, insofar as this can be expressed in human nature. Jesus is the living symbol of God's love, mercy, and incredible tenderness toward his creatures. He is also the way that God communicates divine life to us. The actions that Christ performed during his earthly life expressed his inner dispositions, and none more completely than his passion, death, and resurrection, toward which the whole of his life was oriented. By knowing the historical Jesus, by listening to his Word in the Gospel and in the events of his life, we learn, little by little, to interiorize his teaching and his actions and begin to understand them. This is what we might call deep listening.

But like Mary of Bethany at the feet of Jesus, it is not enough just to listen to his words with our ears and to reflect on them with our reason. This is only an essential preliminary to getting acquainted with him, as in getting acquainted with any new friend. If we are really interested in making this friendship grow, we will find out all we can about him; spend time in prayer, and put his teaching into practice. As we reflect an the Word of God and the humanity of Jesus, we begin to listen with the ears of our hearts. Just as we can converse with someone on the level of words, so we can commune with someone on the level of silence. If we are quite closely acquainted, we can do it just by sitting together and communing without words. Anyone who has a close friend knows this experience.

But there is an even deeper level of conversation than communion, and that is unity. It is to this level that the Word of God is ultimately addressed. This is the capacity to listen with our whole being. Total response to Christ is only possible when we hear his word on every level of our being, including the deepest level, which is that of interior silence. It is at this level that his Word is most powerful and most creative; action that emerges from that silence is effective.

~The Heart of the World

Prayer

O Holy Spirit, under Your sure guidance, help
us to listen to the words of Scripture that You 
have inspired and to penetrate their meaning at 
ever-deepening levels of understanding
insight, and response.

~~~~~