Second Sunday of Lent - Year C - 28th February 2010

Highs and Lows

Peter, James, and John are on a mountaintop where, with God's help, they see with blinding clarity just who Jesus really is. Later these three men will see him at his low point, in the agony in the garden; but today they get a glimpse of what he will be like on Easter Sunday.

Seeing Jesus in his glory did not, however, remove all difficulties from the disciples' lives. When they came down from the mountain they had to take up their mission with all its struggles, opposition and confusion. But the experience on the mountain gave them the courage to keep going and after many trials they had the great joy of seeing Jesus risen from the dead.

Jesus gave his close friends a glimpse of his glory to help them through the hard times he knew were ahead for them. He still does this sometimes for us. Many of us have known peak moments when God seemed very real and close, and the spiritual world felt as real as the world of sight and sound and touch. It may be at a Mass when praying comes easily, when everything seems to fit. Or it may come in moments of quiet, when we're alone without being lonely. A sunset or a flower or a deserted beach can bring on those special times when we feel in touch with ourselves and with God.

Like Peter, James and John, we too want to preserve forever those moments of pure joy that come to us when God is vividly present in our lives.

These special moments are a blessing, but they're out of the ordinary. Most of the time we have to plod along without visions, without peak experiences, without even warm feelings. Most of the time we are like the apostles when they came back to earth; we look around and see nothing out of the ordinary. Only Jesus is there, beckoning us to follow him on rainy days as well as sunny ones. It's wonderful when we meet him on the mountaintop, but most of the action is down here in the valley.