Lent invites us to make sure we have our priorities straight. And if we’re knocked a bit off course coping with life’s challenges, get back on course. I am reminded of the story about a ship captain who saw what looked like the lights of a ship heading toward him. He signaled: “Change your course 10 degrees south.” A reply came: “Change your course 10 degrees north.” The captain answered: “I’m a captain. Change course.” To which the reply was: “I am a seaman. Change course.”
The infuriated captain signaled: “Change your course. I’m on a battleship!” The reply: “Change your course. I’m in a lighthouse.”
As we journey through Lent, and life, let Jesus be our lighthouse. He is our way, our truth and our life.
Jesus asks us to have our priorities straight by: recognizing our absolute dependency upon God and expressing our gratitude for His blessings, service to one another and generosity with our time, talents and treasure.
Last Sunday, we were in the wilderness where Jesus faced down the devil.
This week, we're on a mountaintop in the awesome presence of God. The earthly Jesus is transfigured into a glorious heavenly reality and a voice from heaven proclaims: “Listen to him.”
Lent is not only a time to do without so that the needy can have.
Lent is also a season to affirm our faith in the good news that the Jesus Christ is alive. And because he lives, we live, especially through the sacramental signs of our world-wide faith community: water in baptism, bread and wine in the Eucharist, oil in confirmation and the anointing of the sick.
The word of God also takes us back almost 4,000 years: to Abraham, whose call is a watershed in the history of our salvation. God puts Abraham to the test: sacrifice your only son. We may wonder: what kind of God would ask such a thing? But Abraham has committed himself completely to God. And for his trust, God spares Isaac and promises Abraham countless blessings.
Abraham's extraordinary faith in God is a model for us, especially when things are not going our way, or times seem uncertain and hazardous.
Paul in his letter to the Christian community in Rome invites us to be men and women of courage, to stand up for what is right and true. Yes, God so loved us that He sent his only Son into our midst—the Word became flesh—and through this Jesus's death and resurrection re-established our relationship as adopted sons and daughters of God our Father. Paul then urges us to persevere so God can transform us into his likeness.
In the Gospel, the disciples experienced the transfiguration of Jesus; they saw the unique and awesome presence of God in Jesus. As the scriptures describe this experience, the face of Jesus became as “dazzling as the sun,” his clothes as “white as light,” an allusion to the white cloth a child receives at baptism. The disciples saw a vision of the “glorious” Jesus Christ, beyond the Jesus of flesh and blood in their everyday life.
Yes, God's ultimate aim is to transform us into the likeness of the God. This transformation has already begun in us through baptism in which we have become “new creatures.”
And just as Jesus became a transformative person ushering in the kingdom of God, Jesus calls us to become transformative people as well.
We, as co-workers with God, have to do our best to seek God’s grace to transform hate into peace, indifference into compassion, unfairness and prejudice into fairness and tolerance; sorrow into joy, despair into hope. Yes, transform self-centeredness to other-centeredness, so God can transfigure us.
I close recalling a familiar figure: Notre Dame football icon Lou Holtz, who recognized attitude determines how well one performs any task. Here are a few of his principles:
Focus on your character. Be trustworthy. Behave honorably. When you make a mistake, acknowledge it.
Show people you care. Prove it consistently by praising people's efforts. Show your enthusiasm. Both a great attitude and a bad attitude are contagious.
Surround yourself with people who encourage, who have a positive attitude.
Know what you want; set goals at every stage in life and work to achieve them.
Yes, these are principles that make life worth living.
May this be one of our Lenten prayers:
Let us forgive those we don’t want to forgive;
be compassionate;
be peacemakers;
care for those in need, even though it’s inconvenient;
persevere when we are exhausted;
carry our crosses; and
love when the last thing we want to do is love. Amen.
