A CALL TO PRAYER

On the Third Sunday of Lent in the Catholic Church's Scripture readings, we hear King David's plea to us to join him as he turns to God in prayer.

                                                                  PSALM 95 ...

                                 "COME !  

                                      HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS.

                                            LET US COME INTO HIS PRESENCE .....

                                                   LET US BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP....

                                                           LET US KNEEL BEFORE THE LORD WHO MADE US..."

                                  

It is Spirit Lord, whose words are given voice through His servant King David, Who is beseeching us to kneel down alongside His servant in this passionate call to come into God's Presence with deep humility, reverence, awe.

 

                Spirit Lord's appeal to us in these words of King David is an urgent call to prayer. 

 

                Do his words, echoing to us down through the millennia, resonate in our souls now, today?

As we set out on our Third Week of Lent, we may be given to recognize if we have been tempted to be less vigilant in our Lenten prayer promises. If so, we may dig deep and begin to identify the subtle strategies that have been utilized to tempt us to turn away from our walk alongside Jesus on His journey toward Jerusalem. Spiritual weariness? Spiritual apathy? Stress at work, at home? Have we been permitted to endure the sense of a spiritual fragility that taunts us by suggesting to us that these steps to Calvary are too risky, painful, too filled with potential life-changes that may cause our "normal" to drift out of our control?

It is with great spiritual joy that we realize, yes, we have been tempted to abandon our Lenten sacrifices.

A temptation is not a sin. Jesus the Lord was tempted by Satan himself in the Judean wilderness (Matthew 4; Luke 4). Lent is our wilderness time and when we are being tempted during these precious weeks, our proximity to the Living Furnace of Love is fine-tuning our souls for Divine possession and transformation.

It is good to remember an insight from St. Therese of the Child Jesus who was sorely and endlessly tempted, whose physical and emotional and spiritual temptations assaulted her, simultaneously, and without rest.....

"It is so consoling to think that Jesus, the strong God, experienced all our weaknesses, that He trembled at the sight of the bitter chalice - the cup that He had longed for so ardently."

And her advice to us as we falter? ...

"Always keep lifting your foot to climb the ladder of holiness, and do not  imagine that you can mount even the first step. All God asks of you is good will."

"It is God Who, in His good will toward you, begets in you any measure of desire or achievement. "(Philippians 2:12-16)

HE IS THE GIVER. HE IS THE GIFT. HE IS THE DESIRE. HE IS THE REWARD. HE IS NEVER NOT PRESENT IN OUR SOULS.

HE IS THE ALL, IN ALL.

                 PRAYER IS OUR GOOD-WILL STEP IN OUR MOUNT TOWARD GOD. 

"OUR FULCRUM IS GOD; OUR LEVER, PRAYER; PRAYER WHICH BURNS WITH LOVE. WITH THAT, WE CAN LIFT THE WORLD." (St. Therese)

To turn toward God is already to pray.....the desire to pray and the power to pray are gifted to us, rising

from the depths of our soul, inspired and graced and given breath by the movement of the Holy Spirit dwelling in those depths. To breathe is to pray if the pray-er loves God. 

                    Does the plea of Spirit Lord, calling us to pray through the words of King David,

now resonate more loudly in our souls ...

                                 "Come! ...bow down.....kneel before the Lord Who" made us?

Perhaps, when we are bowing down and kneeling before Him, we may  breathe in the words of Our Lord Jesus as He rushes to come to us in our act of humility and His invitation to us is a deeply personal one...

                                                          

              "... (Hear Him speaking our name) ... Come away by yourself with me to a secluded place and rest a while." (Mark 6:31)

We may have pre-arranged to meet Him for a regular 10 minutes each night of Lent, in a darkened , silent place, with a little artificial candle for light. 

A prayer of petition first prayed by St. John of the Cross may begin and conclude our wordless conversation with Our Lord each night...

"NOW I ASK YOU, LORD, NOT TO ABANDON ME AT ANY TIME IN MY RECOLLECTION 

                                              FOR I AM A SQUANDERER OF MY SOUL."  

                                                      (Maxims and Counsels)

THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD

"This is the moment when the whole Trinity appeared: 

The Father in the Voice;

the Son in the Man; 

the Holy Spirit in the Shining Cloud" (St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III).              

                                           "THIS IS MY CHOSEN SON; LISTEN TO HIM."                        

"And behold, two men were conversing with Him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His exodus that He was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.

.

                                            Then from the Cloud came a Voice that said,

                                          'THIS IS MY CHOSEN SON; LISTEN TO HIM.' " 

                                                          (LUKE 9:28-36).    

During the Transfiguration of the Lord, His Face "changed in appearance and His clothes became dazzling white."  Peter, James and John witnessed the Glory of God transfiguring the Sacred Humanity of Christ Jesus. But then, we are given cause to pause and wonder and be drawn into the discussion that was underway between the Lord and Moses and Elijah who "... spoke of His exodus that He was going to accomplish in Jerusalem."

                It is with utter shock that we begin to understand the meaning of this conversation.

Christ's "exodus" would begin on Holy Thursday evening. His suffering and crucifixion would bring about the completion of the ancient Covenant by means of the required sacrifice of His Own Body on Good Friday. 

When discussion of Christ's Exodus entered the glorious moment of His Transfiguration, the brilliance of God's Glory held hidden the suffering He would endure during His Passion.

CHRIST JESUS' TRANSFIGURATION AND HIS SUFFERING DURING HIS PASSION ARE ONE.

When we are being blessed with consolations from God that cause our souls to soar in holy joy, our times of suffering are hidden.

             They are never not present.

In the horror of the Passion and brutal crucifixion, the brilliance of God's Glory was hidden in the depths of His unspeakable pain.

                     

             His Glory was never not present.

When we are gripped in sorrow, when we're enveloped in a darkness that suggests the absence of God, when we are engulfed in the depths of spiritual desolations, the glory of God's consolations are hidden in our pain. 

              

            His consolations are never not present. 

"Does He not see our anguish and the burden that weighs us down? Why does He not come and comfort us? ...He knows that it is the only means of preparing us to know Him as He knows Himself, and to become ourselves Divine!" (St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face)

As we sit with Peter, James and John on Tabor, silenced and silent in the Shadows cast from the shining Cloud, in the Presence of the Holy Trinity, what do we hear Christ Jesus say to us when we do what Our Father asks of us...

                    

            "Listen to Him".

A LENTEN REFLECTION

                                              The treasures of Lent beckon us. 

What will we "give up"? 

What will we "take up"?

We may spend these weeks meditating on the Figure of Good Friday.

We may look at the brutal suffering He endured.

We may discover we prefer to observe Him from a safe distance, viewers, who watch His Passion, afraid to get too close, even when He falls. 

And we may then be given to reflect on the words St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face:

"How few there are who accept failure and weakness, few who are content to see themselves on the ground and to be found there by others."

Or, we may get as close to His Mother as we possibly can just to comfort her with our presence and our prayer and our love as she walks every step with Him, in His sights at every moment.

And so we may then find ourselves released from our fear of proximity to such suffering and instead to meditate on the endless outpouring of Self-Lavishing Love that took Him there into that horror, for us.

And finally we may find growing within ourselves a burning desire to stand, walk,  be as close as we possibly can to this majestic Figure of Incarnate Love as He walks in our place to His Death. 

"I should not consider any spirituality worthwhile that would walk in sweetness and ease and run from the Imitation of Christ." (St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel)

        AND IN HIS HIDDEN BEAUTY, WE BEGIN TO FIND OUR LENTEN TREASURES.