Lent

All our readings today are descriptions of people standing up for what they believe and putting their lives on the line as a consequence of that belief. The words of Moses – “My father was a wandering Aramaean”- are a form of foundational creed of the Jewish people. It expresses their origins, their identity, their relationship with God, and their belief in what God has done for them. God turned this group of nomads into a settle people, freeing them from slavery and giving them a blessed and fruitful land in which they could live in peace with each other and with their God. That is a dream. Jesus’ responses to the devil’s three temptations in effect give us Jesus’ own statement of faith. He rejects the lure of materialism, the danger of thinking that all is important to the human person is to feed the body, to look for happiness and fulfillment in the material things of life. Jesus also resists the attractions of power, fame, glory, popularity, wealth. These are idols, false gods that demand our souls but cannot save. God alone is worthy of our worship. And finally, perhaps the greatest temptation, Jesus refuses to doubt God, to put to the test. The devil withdraws to await a more opportune time. And it is in Gethsemane, and on the cross, that Jesus has, in effect, to stand up and be counted for His beliefs. “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Becoming God’s works of art means handing ourselves over to be recreated in Christ, shaped by the Father’s love and given a new life in the Holy Spirit. This happens most profoundly when we give up on our own efforts. When we find ourselves finally exiled, lost, at the dead end of our own plans and weaknesses we then realize that what we have driven out is Christ, then we can look on Him and His love and be healed.

Thinking about this in Lent is especially important. We are encouraged by the Church to observe Lent through deepened prayer, more frequent fasting and a greater sharing of what we have. At this stage in Lent many of us will be feeling pleased at what a “successful” Lent we’re having; we’ve stuck to our disciplines and are beginning to feel pretty pleased with our spiritual progress! So let’s be happy in our Lenten journey, and share that smile of God’s love for us a bit more this week. Next time we know we are getting in a mess, instead of simply making bigger efforts of our own, let’s call on Jesus first, and allow ourselves to know the joy of His help in all attempts to love better.

This encounter of Peter, James and John upon the mountain with the glorious Christ seems out of place in the Gospel of St. Mark. Why are the disciples not able to see the glory of Christ at every moment? Why can they not see this? It is because they have not accepted that Jesus must die on the cross. We, readers of St. Mark’s Gospel, are now seeing all this in the light of the cross and resurrection. We know that without the cross there can be no resurrection. It is only after Jesus has risen that the disciples will understand the significance of what happened upon the mountain. The mountain of the glorious appearance of Jesus only makes sense in the light of that other mountain, Golgotha, the place of the crucifixion. When we think of earthly glory we think of those who have risen above our ordinary human weakness and vulnerability. Those who are rich and famous do not share in our daily struggles to make a living. Sometimes we think that sharing in the glory of Christ will make us invulnerable to human weakness and suffering. With Peter we say it is wonderful to be with the glorified Christ, and we wish to build a dwelling place so that Christ can stay forever with us. Yet remaining with Christ means following Him to that other mountain, the place of the cross.

In order to enter into His glory, Christ calls us to follow Him on the path to the cross. It is very tempting to remain on the mountain, but we are called to return to our lives. Each of us is confronted by suffering: the pain and disappointments of our own lives, the sufferings of those around us. As Christians we are not called to rise above the pain and suffering of the world, but to follow Christ and enter into those places where people suffer. We can only do this as Christ’s disciples, allowing Him to enter into our own suffering and pain, so that we can show to others this healing love. This is what it means to show the glory of Christ.

In the old legends, the hero was recognized as such from an early age. Mark’s Gospel gives no information on Jesus’ early years, but all Gospel references to what follows Jesus’ baptism draw attention to His unique status. First, however, He is put to the test. We are told that Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, where He was tempted by Satan. We are also told that He was with the wild beasts. It was commonly believed in the ancient world that the wilderness was where evil spirits and demons lived. Jesus was also looked after by angels. In today’s Gospel story, the issue is whether Jesus, the beloved Son of God will trust His Father where the nation Israel, the children of God, did not. Mark doesn’t explicitly tell us the outcome, but we are told that Jesus emerged triumphant from this test and, after John’s arrest, proclaimed: “The kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.”

Perhaps our own test, especially during Lent, is to ask ourselves if we really believe that the kingdom of God is at hand and that it really is good news for us. The goal of Lenten repentance is to change our mindset to accepting God’s good news, and letting it make a difference in lives. After all, the English word “repentance” comes from a Greek word that literally means “a change of mind”. We are called first to change the way we think about God’s kingdom and Jesus’ good news before we try to change our behavior. This change of mind is what Lent is really about.

The story of Jesus healing a blind man who tells the Pharisees that he can now see is told in today’s Gospel from St. John. Imagine how excited the blind man must have been to see for the first time. He would no longer need to beg to survive and readily shared his joy and acknowledged the healing power of Jesus. The blind man progresses from darkness to light. The Pharisees, on the other hand, first appear to accept the blind man’s healing but then begin to doubt and finally deny Jesus’ heavenly origins. The early Christians saw physical blindness as a metaphor for the spiritual blindness that prevents people from recognizing the divinity of Jesus and following His teachings. Today’s story testifies to the power of Jesus to heal not just the blindness of the eye but, above all, the blindness of the heart.

The Gospel shows that one thing we need to bear witness to Jesus is experience of the person of Jesus Christ. Today the Church invites us to reflect on God’s love and compassion for the whole world and to be joyful because of it. God loves each and every one of us, and today we are invited to say yes to God’s love, to believe in the holiness of Jesus and to recognize God’s presence in our daily lives. We are also called to have the humility to recognize that God works in others too, sometimes through the most unexpected people. How often do we refuse to believe that we can learn from those who oppose us and disagree with us? And what areas of the Church, of society and of our culture need serious healing in our own time? Where can we recognize the light of Christ shining in the world today and in our own community? Let’s celebrate God’s love and healing power as the blind man did after encountering Jesus. God’s divine intervention helps us transform into people who live lives of goodness, generosity and justice, reflecting God’s light.