2nd Sunday of Lent B

Last week, as Lent began, I invited you to do what, in one form or another, I invite you to do every year at this time: to go into the desert with Jesus and confront the demons which live there. This year, however, the demons I had in mind were not our personal ones. Rather, they were our communal ones, the ones which have been running riot among us for so long and which have finally been shown for what they are in the financial crisis currently dominating our world. And I suggested to you that Lent, with its traditional emphasis on prayer, fasting and almsgiving, has within it the basic ingredients of an antidote to all that has gone wrong. Prayer challenges the shallow materialism that has led to so much superficiality in our society today. Fasting and self-denial, ways of acting not in tune with the mood of our time, call us beyond the ‘I must have it now’ culture which demands the instant satisfaction of every whim or desire and accounts to a large extent for the mountain of debt in our economy. And almsgiving, the fruit of both prayer and self-denial, which open us up to others and begins to address the totally unacceptable gap between those who have and those who have not in our world. And now, on this second Sunday, we have Abraham and Isaac along with the story of the Transfiguration. So, as we try to develop a consistent theme in our reflections throughout this season, what do these passages have to say to us and how, if at all, do they take us forward. Well, let’s look first at the Transfiguration.

What this story reminds of is that it is possible to glimpse, even if only momentarily, realities which, this side of eternity, normally remain hidden and unseen. In it, Peter, James and John are given an insight into the reality of who Jesus is. And while it is an awe-inspiring experience - ‘It is wonderful for us to be here’ – it is also unbearable, too much for them to take in – ‘When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces, overcome with fear.’ And, of course, this is true of all of us. The main reason why we cannot see God face-to-face at this moment in our journey into him is that we are not ready for it and could not bear it. It would literally blow our minds. We just do not have the capacity yet to contain such an experience. Many psychiatrists would tell us, in fact, that one explanation for what we call ‘madness’ is that, in people whom we think of as ‘mad’, some kind of protective filter in their minds fails to work and more of reality than we are designed to cope with pours into them. And yet, having said that, we all have Transfiguration experiences; moments when we are taken out of ourselves, - which is what exstacy means - and, whether it is in the face of the beauty of nature or a moment of profound happiness or whatever, we, too, glimpse something normally hidden from us. And I invite you today to remember such Transfigurations moments in your life and trust them. They are very very important.

But there is another way of entering into realities as yet unseen. And that is by the use of the imagination, some would say, God’s greatest gift to us. Every advance made by humanity, every step forward in the on-going story of the human race, begins in someone’s imagination. Only by first imagining something can we begin to make it a reality. The cars, buses and planes we travel in today only exist because someone, years ago, long before they came into existence, was able to imagine them. And even now, as we speak, there is someone somewhere imagining forms of travel, as yet unknown, which will, one day, take us out into the cosmos. And it is the same with the kingdom of God. If it is to become a reality among us, first we must imagine it. And that is what I invite you to do now. Imagine a world transfigured....So what would it be like?

Well, the first thing that would astonish and amaze us would be the presence of God everywhere. No matter where we turned, God would be there, lovingly working and labouring in every situation and in the life of every person. So imagine it. See it in your mind’s eye! A world where God is visible everywhere.....And as the truth of God’s presence everywhere filled us, the whole way we see the world would change. Suddenly, instead of judging others harshly, our hearts would be filled with the compassion of God for them. Instead of seeing people’s faults, we would see the goodness of God in them, no matter what they had done. And I invite you to imagine that too. ...And as we began to see the world for what it is, a God-filled place, the things in the world which are not of God would become more and more ugly and abhorrent to us until we could simple not bear them: the poverty, the hunger, the greed, the injustice, the war, the hatred and the violence, the shallowness of so much that we do. So imagine that too.... And as a result, our one overwhelming desire would be to to rid the world of such things which we would see as blots or blemishes on an otherwise God filled place. And imagine what the world could become then.

But, of course, imagining is one thing. Turning what we imagine into reality is something else entirely. And it is for this reason that we turn now to the first reading. Leaving aside any idea that the story of Abraham and Isaac is a real historical event, which it isn’t, what it teaches us is that, if what we imagine is ever to become a reality, like Abraham in the story, we, too, are going to have to sacrifice things which are dear to us. To put it bluntly: if the world is to become a more just place; if the hungry are to be fed; if the looming catastrophe of global warming, with all that it entails, especially for the poor, is to be avoided; we cannot go on living the way we do. And yet it is so hard for us to hear this. It seems too much. We don’t want to think about it. And yet, unless we can embrace it, all the imagining in the world will remain no more than that; imagining.

Which, of course, is where Lent comes in. It is only a beginning, but it points us in the right direction. So keep praying. Keeping fasting. Keep giving. And, above all, keep imagining.

BIDDING PRAYERS

One of the things which makes us different from the animals who share our planet with us is the ability we have, as humans, to imagine things. It is what has enabled us to make such rapid progress through history, moving from primitive ways of living to where we are today on a time-scale which, in evolutionary terms, is no more than a few years. And so we pray for the grace to use that same gift now to imagine new ways of living which address the great issues of our time................Lord hear us

In the Gospel reading today, Jesus led the disciples up a high mountain to pray. Throughout the Scriptures the mountains were places of prayer, not least because they enabled those who climbed them to see long distances. And so we pray for the grace to climb the mountain of prayer this Lent so that we, too, can become people with a broad vision, able to see beyond our noses and view the events of history through the eyes of the God who is at work deep within them...............Lord hear us

The liturgy calls Lent a great season of grace during which God teaches us to control our desires and so grow in freedom. We learn to live in this passing world with our hearts set on the things that really matter. And so we pray for this grace. We pray that, through our Lenten penance, we will grow in the freedom we need to reject the emptiness and superficiality of our consumer-driven society and set our hearts on what is really important..........Lord hear us

The second reading this week speaks of the generosity of God. Having given us his Son, Paul says, there is no way now that he would refuse to give anything he can give. And so we pray that our giving to SCIAF this Lent will be open and generous and that, like God, we will not refuse anything we can give, not only in terms of money, but in the way we reach out to all who are in need, whether here in Kilmarnock or in other parts of the world........Lord hear us

Whether we remember them or not, or even recognize them at the time for what they are, we all have transfiguration moments in our lives. This happens when the veil which covers our eyes and prevents us seeing the full truth about the world around us is removed and, for a brief moment, we glimpse the presence of God in all things. These are vital moments in our lives and we pray for the grace we need today to remember them and trust them...................Lord hear us

This week’s Kilmarnock Standard carries on its front page a story about the possible building of a new children’s unit here in New Farm Loch. Such a unit would house a small number of damaged and difficult young people, and many in the community are extremely unhappy, not just about the building of the unit, but about the lack of consultation over it. And so, as feelings run high, we ask God to guide us and enable us to respond, not out of fear or anger, but out of love...............Lord hear us