ALL WILL BE WELL ON THE MOUNTAIN TOP
March 5, 2023
Second Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Lent is a time to step back, to regain one’s bearings, to come to a new perspective.

Harrison Butker, who kicked the game–winning field goal to clinch the Super Bowl for the Kansas City Chiefs, declined some of the celebrations that accompanied becoming World Champions and made a retreat at Saint Michael’s Abbey in Orange County, CA instead.

You took Peter, James, and John with you up to the mountain top, so you could have some quality time with them. I remind myself that we are human beings and not human doings.

Jesus, I bet it is really quiet on the top of the mountain. I bet it is so quiet that you can almost reach out and grab the stillness and the silence and pull them into your heart. Oh, how much we need those quiet moments, seemingly so far and few in between, and so fleeting. A friend of yours, Jesus, must be a friend of silence.

How can I step back this Lent and spend more time with Jesus?

It is interesting to note that the word silent is an anagram! The letters of the word silent can be rearranged into a new word: LISTEN.

On the mountain top, as the light of love spilled from the heart of Jesus, the Father’s voice instructed the disciples, “Listen to him.”

I am not always the best of listeners, Lord. I am always trying to anticipate what my response is going to be, even before listening to another person’s viewpoint until she or he finishes. Help me to become a better listener.

Do I set aside time every day to listen to you by being still and silent, by opening the Scriptures, your love letters to me?

Do I respectfully listen to the people you have placed into my life?

The Father declared to the disciples on that holy mountain, “This is my Beloved Son!”  And because of your great act of love on the cross, we hear the Father say to us, “You are my Beloved Daughter! You are my Beloved Son!

Spend some time this coming week saying that over and over to yourself.

Do I let your light of love and goodness shine through me? What gets in the way of that holy shining?

Jesus, your Father’s love transformed you! May your Father’s love transform me!