Lessons from the transfiguration

Get up and do not be afraid

This year, Catholics throughout the world are living the liturgical season of Lent as a particularly interesting journey.  Alongside our own personal experiences of the Lord’s call for us to fast, to pray and to give alms for the good of those in need, the entire Church is holding its breath as we witness the final days of the pontificate of His Holiness, Benedict XVI.  For the past week, His Holiness has been on retreat along with the other members of the Papal Household and the Cardinals of the Curia.  This is a regular part of the Lenten observance in the Vatican, but in a few days’ time, His Holiness will effectively retire from the position of Supreme Pontiff – something that has always been possible, but rarely observed – indeed, anything but regular.

This Church of ours has many rules, and those of us who have been around get to know the rules.  We have even managed to become comfortable with most of them, so when His Holiness announced his intention to retire, it caught us all off guard; since that moment, there have been questions on the lips of many if not all of those who sit in our pews.  In a sense, we are like the apostles Peter, James and John, the privileged few who were invited by Jesus to accompany him to the top of the mountain where they witnessed the Transfiguration.  They had questions too, but while these privileged few witnessed something that the other disciples did not, and would not see with their own eyes, they must have experienced something truly extraordinary.  Peter voiced his excitement, on behalf of the three as he told Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here.  I’m not sure whether Peter was a tent maker, but he was willing to employ his talents in order to make the heavenly guests more comfortable. In the end, I believe that he had a hidden motive though: what he truly wanted was to prolong the experience of being in their presence, but this was not to be.

Change is never easy for humans, and yet change is exactly what we are invited to live every day.  This year’s Lenten period appears to be an occasion for all of us to embrace such change.  We do not know the reasons why His Holiness has decided to take such drastic measures; perhaps they will only come to light long after he is gone, but he is aware of the gravity of his decision, and we must take this opportunity to give thanks for all that he has given to us, to pray for the Cardinal electors who will soon choose his successor and for the one who will be chosen, that he will courageously accept the office that the Lord will entrust to him.

None of us here has ever lived in a time when there were two popes, so the days ahead will indeed provide us with an opportunity to experience something new.  Ours is a privileged moment indeed, to do as Abram did when he went from his country, leaving behind everyone and everything that was familiar.  This was a different kind of fast, but a fast nonetheless, an opportunity for him to discover what it’s like to rely entirely on God and on God’s grace as the source of life.  Relying on God, we will enter into this new experience of witnessing a conclave which will in all likeliness take place in the coming weeks, so that with God’s grace, we will have a new pope by Eastertime.

A number of years ago, at a time when I was preparing to accept a new pastoral appointment, a wise priest pointed out that at times when we are waiting for new beginnings, we often discover the true power of prayer.  With all the change that the next weeks will bring for our church, perhaps we should listen well to the advice that Paul offers to his disciple Timothy in today’s second reading: Join with me in … relying on the power of God who called us according to his own purpose and grace.  As we witness the events of the coming weeks, be particularly attentive to the way in which we pray.  As far as is possible, try to be aware of God’s attempts to speak, to guide, to reveal opportunities and occasions for us to be instruments of grace.  He calls us to get up, and not be afraid of what is to come, so give generously whenever possible in order to lighten the load of another who is journeying along the road of faith, and if necessary, use words too to express gratitude to God.