Sunday 18th February 2007  Quinquagesima

Fr David Cherry

Exodus  34  :  29 – 35 ; II  Corinthians  3 : 12  -  4 : 2 ; Luke  9  :  28 – 43a

“Jesus took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.”

Lent is a time for dying to set ways and breaking old habits of thought; a time for opening up to the culture of God, his kingdom in our midst.

There’re a lot of hills in north Wales where I’ve been on retreat this week.  Going into retreat is to get some clarity, some clarity about what the will of God is and what one is about.  Hills help.  You get a perspective.  I saw the landscape ‘plotted and pieced’ that Hopkins wrote about in his sonnet Pied Beauty. I felt the exhilaration of giving glory back to God, ‘beauty’s source and beauty’s giver.’  And I found a lot out about myself too in hours and hours of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.  

We seek the clarity which opens a door on the reality of things, on one’s life as seen by God.
And there is talk of this clarity , what we are seeking being veiled in today’s lessons.

The revelation on the mountain is of Jesus, the eternal Word, standing in the priestly garments of the High Priest in the Holy of Holies of the 1st Temple.  He is shown to them as the one who was there before Creation began, outside and before time, outside materiality.  But from there the High Priest must proceed into material matter, through the veil of the Temple symbolizing Creation and into created matter, to come and offer sacrifice for the people; to come and complete his saving work, bringing all things to perfection.

The Transfiguration is placed here in the liturgical calendar before Lent because this is the pivotal point in the life of Jesus.  From now on his face will be fixed towards Jerusalem, to accomplish, to finish off the work of Creation in the triumph of the cross; and at Easter again the grave with two angels as in the Cherubim either end of the ark - the Holy of Holies – will be opened up.  God in Jesus will be recognized by Mary Magdalene in a garden as the Heavenly Gardner like in Eden, lovingly tending his Creation.

There is much symbolism here which the disciples were only beginning to get.  Whatever their reasons they wanted to halt the work of their creator, to set it in stone, enshrine it, to hang onto what was ‘sacred’.  As yet they are found unable to bring in the kingdom, unable to heal and bring it to new life.  This is always the work of God.  They were still being brought to the fullness of understanding; their minds still veiled as St Paul interprets the veil over Moses faces in the epistle – those yet unable to fully see and perceive.  Reluctantly, they will still have to go with Jesus to Jerusalem to see his passing from death to life.

And we with the disciples also seek the clarity of what our salvation means and what it means to each of us.  Lent begins this Ash Wednesday.  It is the beginning of going towards Jerusalem to celebrate the great events of Holy Week.  

Lent is a springtime for souls, a time of renewal; renewal in understanding, renewal of faith in Jesus.  It is a time for dying to set ways and breaking old habits of thought; a time for opening up to the culture of God, his kingdom in our midst.

Recently I was talking to the 1st year class on the Ignatian Spirituality Course.  I said that the gospel begins with love not sin.  Well what about Ash Wednesday then? asked someone.  It’s so gloomy.

Of course the point is that Ash Wednesday is not the beginning of the Christian Year – Advent is, with all its promise of a New Creation coming to birth.  Ash Wednesday with its “Remember thou art dust and unto dust shalt thy return; repent and believe the gospel” is a fair reminder of our mortality and our desire to cling on – to build a tabernacle to what cannot endure : our sense of self, identity, the purposes that trap us.

To be renewed in our faith in Jesus is to be delivered from demonic fear so as to be possessed by hope. “Hold death always before thine eyes”, said St Benedict.   It is this hope which possessed the saints like Maxmillian Kolbe who with a quiet confidence offered to take the place of a fellow prisoner and die in his place.  It is this hope which has enabled so many to make a good death, having already begun to experience eternity; letting go, trusting in God.

Bring on the ashes! I said to the woman who asked.  Bring on repentance so that I may be free to live for God and in service of my neighbour; bring on that freedom to work with God for the salvation of the world around me.

May God give us grace to repent, to turn around from the dead-end faiths we live by, to faith in Jesus.  Remember the words of Jesus to the Pharisee who complained about a sinful woman who came to Jesus in distress and washed and anointed his feet : “It is the man who is forgiven little who shows little love.”

May each of you find the clarity you seek as we follow Jesus together on this journey; may we be found willing to ask forgiveness and find our hearts set free; may we be taken to Jerusalem to see what God will accomplish in us and discover the liberating joy of Easter.

Amen