This Is Not The End

One of the most frustrating things for us modern people is ‘waiting’. We can’t waiting! For example, being asked to wait for an answer, waiting at the bank for your turn, waiting in hospital, waiting for an email to be answered. Waiting is indeed a lost virtue/ discipline in lots of us. We are rather a touch screen generation, everything must happen right here, right now (demand and get) . Experts are now telling us that the upside of this is lots of troubling anxiety disorders.
 
From the First reading we learn that this demeanor might be as old as Abraham, yes it might be a human default we have. We will most likely bring this same attitude to our relationship with God (our spiritual life), yet how does God respond?
 
The experiences of Abraham and Jesus are shared with us, and the bottom line is – we must recultivate the discipline of waiting, courage to wait in the Lord, yields fruits. When God promises, he delivers, so put your total trust in Him. Hence our responsorial psalm is our weekend challenge: ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation’, have no doubt! reassure others.
 
God promises many things to Abram : ‘ Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can. Just so , he added , “shall be your descendants” But Abram has no heir/son. Is this an empty promise? Yes he trusts the Lord , but we can probably see Abram saying inside himself : ‘prove it?’ Actually it is not long that he can’t keep silent anymore and says : How am I to know that I will possess all this?
 
This question ‘how can I know’ , reveals the most common fear of believers – The fear of the unknown / the unpredictable future. Think about the many things we do / plan in order at least to feel secure of the future? Money in the bank, buying property, educating our children, working long hours, staying healthy etc. We try to pre-empt that unknown , just in case??
 
Note what God then asks Abram to do: ‘Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.  He brought him all these, split them in two, and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut up.’ ( this is ancient ritual sacrifice, possibly a precursor to the Eucharistic table) . And as the sun set and a terrifying darkness was falling , Abram is in a trance ; then there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, which passed between those pieces.  On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: To your descendants I give this land.
 
Speed forward to the Easter vigil ceremonies we will celebrate in a few weeks. Light shatters the darkness, and we sing Christ our light! Light is a symbol of God’s presence and victory over darkness. Remember the burning bush of Moses, the fire tongues on the heads of the apostles at Pentecost, the paschal candle at the baptism of a child. God is light. God is ‘the forward of our life’. So, believers / fellow disciples, let us learn to wait in the Lord. Recultivate the discipline of waiting and share this with others.  
 
Why does Jesus transfigure?
 
A little before this event, Jesus speaks repeatedly about his impending passion, suffering, death and resurrection. But the disciples want no part of this. The disciples followed Jesus until now for quite other reasons. They assume that Jesus is a political messiah. The one who is to restore the Jewish nation by being at his side will now become men of rank and power, privilege and position when all is said and done, so they think. Do you remember the mothers of sons of Zebedee , James and John who ask Jesus that his sons seat one at his left and one at his right , when the kingdom comes??  
 
For Jesus, they have got it all wrong and his mission is in jeopardy. His frustration moves him to chose three of his most trusted disciples (Peter, James and John) and take them up a mountain, There he transfigures. And who is with him? Moses and Elijah, giants of the Jewish faith. For the disciples seeing them is an immediate stamp of approval that Jesus is real!
 
And then a cloud engulfs them all, and from this cloud a voice is heard (in the Scripture , hearing a voice always implies an imperative/command) : ‘This is my chosen Son, listen to him’
 
The disciples will not stay at the mountains, they must return to deal with the facts of life. But with a different mindset. This is not the end! After death, there is life, and our bodies will be glorified as Jesus’.
 
As we journey through this second week of lent, let us ask God to grant the grace to recultivate and recalibrate the discipline of waiting in him. Waiting with total trust. Frustrations, suffering, pain and death are real yet for us they are not the end. God is light and life. Let us also bring this attitude to others by our way of life (words and deeds). Share with them the light and life of God. Bring to the world of today that confidence/ hope is in God and in nothing else.

-Fr. Anthony Mpagi