Rushing the Season?

Here it is only the second Sunday of Lent and we seem to be celebrating the Transfiguration of Jesus when he appeared in glory to his closest followers. Aren't we rushing the season a bit? The answer to that question would be “yes” if today we were commemorating Jesus’ ascension into heaven, but that's not the case. Notice that Moses and Elijah were speaking about Jesus' departure. In other words, they were talking about the rejection and torture Jesus would have to endure and about his crucifixion. That's how Jesus departed this world.

This was "a mountaintop experience but not the kind about which persons write glowingly of sunrises, soft breezes, warm friends, music, and quiet time. On this mountain the subject is death..." (Craddock, Interpretation, 135).

How Do We Prepare For the Worst?

I think that one of the basic questions that emerge from today's reading is this: How do we prepare to face the hardships, difficulties, sufferings and death that are part of everyone's life? That's quite a question isn't it? I bet you're glad you came here to get an answer to that one! Well, as they say, fools rush in where angels dare to tread, so let's go. There are two basic steps to dealing with the harsh realities of life.

Acceptance

Our first step in preparing for the worst is accepting reality. We all have to die. Many of us will have to suffer. It doesn't really matter if we want to or not. That's not our choice. This may sound rather harsh, but it's no harsher than saying that the sun has to rise and set, we have to breathe air to stay alive, and a bird has to fly. Some things just are. Fighting against them won't change them. It will usually just make them worse. Acceptance is still a basic spiritual attitude that most of us will probably have to work on till our dying day. We can still have questions, and we can still get angry at the way things are, but that still won't change reality.

Jesus knew that the coming days would be horrible ones. He was walking into a time in his life, which he would rather have avoided. Didn't he ask the Father to let the cup of suffering pass him by? And yet he also said, "Not my will, but thine be done." This kind of acceptance doesn't come easy. Take note of the fact that Jesus went up the mountain to pray. Prayer can help us immensely when it comes to forming an attitude of acceptance.

Wasting Energy

Sometimes we use up all of our energy in fighting against what is, instead of using our energy to help us dealing with what is. If your husband or wife becomes sick, what do they need from you? Surely they don't need you to run away from them, either emotionally or physically. They need your presence. But as long as you spend your energy in being angry or being in denial, you are taking away what your partner really needs. They need you. Only when you come to acceptance can you really give them the support, help and comfort they need in what is probably a very difficult time for them.

Our Reaction to Life

Here are one person's thoughts on the importance of acceptance. "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, then circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say, or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home....We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it" (Rev. Charles Swindoll).

An elderly Christian lady, who was crippled with arthritis, used to hobble to the services of the church on crutches. It was a great ordeal and required of her a considerable amount of toil and pain. A friend of hers observed her regular and faithful attendance and asked, "How do you manage to be at every service?" Her answer was, "My heart gets there first, and my old legs just follow after."

The Second Step

As we try to make our way through the maze of suffering and death, the second step is one of hope and expectation. St. Paul declares that our citizenship is in heaven, our homeland is heaven. This is quite a leap from the first step of acceptance. Even those who do not believe in God can practice acceptance. But now we are called upon to exercise our faith, our trust in God. Our final home is not here on earth. Our faith in a God who cares calls us to see beyond the present pain and suffering—even to see beyond death.

This deep faith in the unseen and the unknown seems to many people as simply an escape from life. But as people of faith, we do not see it as an escape. Besides there are better escapes: money, drugs, alcohol, sexual license and so forth. Wouldn't these escapes give us more pleasure than the undying trust in God that we are asked to have? If faith is just an escape, it is a poor one. It really doesn't have the side benefits that many of the world's escapes have.

Faith is not an escape. It is the most wonderful gift that God could give to us because within the heart of faith we find hope. There is something more—much more—so wonderful that we don't even have words for it. May we allow the God of Love to pour this faith into our hearts as we continue our Lenten journey.