2nd Sunday of Lent A

Our journey through Lent began last week with the book of Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve, the focus of our reflection afterwards being on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil planted in the middle of the garden. And we saw how, in Hebrew literature, whoever ate of this tree was an arrogant person, someone who would submit to no law and who would decide for himself what was right or wrong without regard to any authority. What the author is saying, of course, is that this is the height of stupidity. We are not gods. We are created by God and if we are to find fulfillment it can only be by living in harmony with the mind of the creator. When God in the story tells the man and the woman not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he’s not creating rules for their own sake. He knows what the consequences of human arrogance – eating from the tree – will be. The result will be catastrophic and what he is trying to do is protect humanity from its own foolishness. And if we ever doubted the truthfulness of the Genesis story all we have to do is look around the world today and see the consequences of this, from global warming to the worst excesses of our consumer-driven society. There’s something wrong with the way we run the world and the book of Genesis describes the problem perfectly. We have swallowed the serpent’s lie, eaten of the tree in the middle of the garden, and, by becoming gods in our own eyes, have upset the whole balance of creation… Who says the story of Adam and Eve isn’t true?

And, of course, we linked this to the modern phenomenon of atheism, one of the great signs of the times which the Second Vatican Council calls us to understand rather than condemn. And it’s so important that we do this. Atheism today is not a ‘bad’ thing. It simply is; the inevitable consequence of what went before, and largely the result of religion’s almost total failure to respond adequately as the world emerged from the Middle Ages into a new world ruled, not by religious belief, but by science and reason. It’s the inevitable next stage on our long journey through history, the really big question being what will come after it. And the answer to that question is crucial.

Either there is a God or there isn’t. If there isn’t then the sooner faith and religion are obliterated from the face of the earth the better. They tell us lies and every attempt to make sense of our lives which is based on them is pure illusion. But if there is a God, then any attempt to make sense of the human condition which does not take his existence into account is also doomed to failure. And we saw this last week too: how in an atheistc society people seek happiness in things which cannot deliver it and lead inevitably to disappointment and even despair. Only this week I read of a report which had ‘discovered’ – as if we didn’t already know – that binge drinking and drug taking among young people is the result of a deep emptiness and lack of meaning in their lives. And at the very top of this pyramid we have people like Amy Winehouse, Britney Speirs and so many others who have discovered the hard way that money and the acquiring of material things does not bring happiness. And to this world, the world of the early 21st Century, God speaks the words he spoke long ago to Abraham. It’s an invitation he extends to people in every age and we heard it this morning in the first reading. Leave this place, he says, and go to a place that I will show you. Where we are now is only a moment on a much longer journey and at every step of that journey God invites us to understand where we have come from (our religious past), where we are now (an age of confusion and doubt) and where he is inviting us to go next. But where is he inviting us to go next. Well, I would answer that question by using the language of today’s gospel. Just as Jesus did with Peter, James and John, God is inviting us all to climb the Mountain of the Transfiguration. So what do I mean by this?

Well, it’s something we have spoken about before, something the most visionary and far-sighted writers in the Church have been talking about for many years, and it’s the Age of Mysticism. Last year, over a period of several weeks, I quoted the Jesuit writer William Johnston who, reflecting on the future of the Church, says that we must give people mysticism or die. And ever since I came here in 1985 I have been quoting Karl Rahner and others who for years had been saying that only those with personal faith would survive in the Church of the 21st Century. And it’s all coming true. Mysticism is not some exotic thing reserved for people like Teresa of Avila or John of the Cross. It’s what Peter, James and John experienced that day when, for just a moment, their minds were opened, their vision expanded, their understanding deepened and they saw beyond the surface of things into realities they had not realised were there. And that’s what needs to happen to us today if we are to move beyond the shallowness and emptiness of so much of our modern culture. Quite simply, we need to go deeper, beyond the surface of things.

And I have no doubt God is already hard at work on this deep inside each one of us. The signs are there and I simply invite you to recognize them in yourself. Note, for example, the way doubt has replaced a lot of your old certainties. Observe how rules and regulations mean less to you now that they once did. Pay attention to how the way you pray is changing, becoming perhaps less wordy than it once was. Allow the little 21st Century atheist in you to have his say and don’t be afraid of him. He doesn’t have to be your enemy. He can be your friend, the one who, since God does not think as we do, helps you move towards mysticism. Notice how, without you even noticing, the gap between religion and life has narrowed, or even disappeared, as you begin to recognize God in all kinds of places which have nothing to do with religion or churches, especially those in need.

And as we become aware of all these things happening to us, know, with St Peter, that it’s good for us to be here.


BIDDING PRAYERS


When God told Abraham to leave his country, his family and his father’s house, for a land he would show him, the author of Genesis simple says that Abraham went as the Lord told him. It is this trust, this willingness to go where God leads which has made Abraham a model of faith for so many generations of people at different moments in history. And so we pray for the grace to be like him at this particular point in humanity’s journey down through the ages……………………………....Lord hear us.

To leave his country and, in particular, to leave his father’s house would have been a huge wrench for Abraham. They represented everything he had known throughout his life and he was already an old man who could reasonably have expected to live out the rest of his days in peace. But that is not God’s way. The call to move on, to go deeper, to enter the Age of Mysticism becomes more urgent, not less, as we grow older. And so we pray for the grace to understand this…………………...Lord hear us

When the Second Vatican Council spoke of the need to read the signs of the times, it was inviting us to enter deeply into the age we live in. Rather than sit of the sidelines criticising and finding fault with the world, the Council was inviting us to enter deeply into the spirit of our age, understand it, recognize the movement of the Spirit in it and so help the men and women of our time to make sense of it. And so we pray for the wisdom we need to do that……………………………………..…Lord hear us

For many people, the journey towards mysticism and deeper ways of understanding has begun with disillusionemnt about the Church. Many, in the process, have walked away but continue to believe in God. And so we pray for them today. Others, having seen through the emptiness of so much that they were taught as children have rejected it and turned to either atheism, agnosticism or, perhaps more commonly, utter indifference. And so we pray for them, too, that the many paths we tread will lead us all, in the end, to the God who longs to share his life with us….Lord hear us

The truth we can spend our whole lives failing to appreciate is that the whole world is filled with the splendour of God. He is closer than the air we breathe. He is all around us if we have eyes to see. He is in every person we meet and in every situation we find ourselves in. There is no human experience which does not have the potential to lead us to him. And so we pray for the Jesus will lead us, too, up the Mountain of the Transfiguration and open our eyes to what is all around us……………....Lord hear us

Living at this particular moment in history, it really is good for us to be here. The Spirit of God is at work deep within everything that happens in our world. God has not, and never will abandon his people. And so we pray for the grace we need to recognize this each day as watch the News on TV or read the newspapers, resisting the pessimsim we so easily fall into……Lord hear us