March 5 Reflection for Lent: Go to the mountaintop

 This Lent I'm putting some thought into a reflection based on the Lenten mass each Sunday.

 

This week's reading focuses on going with Jesus to the mountain to pray. (Matt 17: 1-9)

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. ² There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. ³ Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

⁴ Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

⁵ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

⁶ When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. ⁷ But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” ⁸ When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

⁹ As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

 

The homily focused on both Genesis 12: 1-4, about Abraham and God's promise to Abraham at 75 to make him a father to a great nation of people.

Abraham had to have faith in God's promise to him, even though it would take a true miracle for that promise to come true.  Just like for us, we have prayers to God that we hope will come true, as silly as they might seem to other people.  Most of us are waiting for a miracle.

On the other hand, the apostles who traveled with Jesus to the mountaintop were in the presence of God, and it was not joy to discover the power of Jesus, but it was terrifying.  To come face to face with with something and someone unexpected, even if it is goodness itself, we are often afraid of the future.

And Jesus gives a promise as well: there will be something to proclaim, of a better future, once Easter has passed.  For during these dark times of Lent, we have only the promise, and the terror of an uncertain future.

But one of the tenets of Catholic faith is to hold onto the faith we have, the faith we put in God, to pave a future that brings us into glory: a promise of goodness and holiness fulfilled.

But we can only see that promise begin, in the middle of darkness, on a lonely mountaintop.