Dear Parish Family,

 The Gospel account for today’s liturgy presents the Transfiguration of the Lord. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up on a mountain. In the Scriptures, mountains have a symbolic value. Many times, when an important event takes place on a mountain, it is an encounter between the human and the divine. The climb to Mount Tabor was rigorous one as it is over 2000 feet high with a rugged terrain. From the top the disciples will have looked down the Valley of Jazreel Valley, like we peer down through the window during a flight if we have a seat by the window. Tired and weak they settle down on the mountain, ‘to-what-next’ kind of boredom and they are blessed with a vision ‘out of this world’. The person whom they had known for a three years, is suddenly transformed. They are given a glimpse of heaven and they are won over as ‘this is the best thing in life!’  Instead of being lost in wonder, the Father tells them: “Listen to him.”

All of us encounter a lot of noise every day. It is as if all our waking hours are filled with sound, noise, news, advertisement and chatter. Silence is a good place to listen — not to music or news or talk show hosts or sports stories, but to the voice of the Lord. The Lord speaks in the silence of our hearts and the only way we can listen is to enter into the quiet. Surely reading a passage from Scripture or saying a prayer helps, but time spent in silence will enable us to “listen to him.”

We live in a mediated world. We experience reality through the Media and our opinions and decisions are often culled by them. The question becomes as we journey through Lent is – is that message worth hearing or listening to? Does this lead me further along the path of life that God offers? Does it hinder me or put an obstacle in my path? Does it lead me in another direction? To put the question in another way, we can ask ourselves: What I listen to or watch good, true or beautiful? If it is, then we may just hear the voice of Jesus coming through, since he himself is the source of all that is good, true and beautiful. But if what we are listening to or watching does not reflect those qualities, then we might want to consider something different or better.

We often miss God’s actions in our lives, we are so busy. Society can put so much pressure on us to focus our vision, our energy, our drive solely on the pursuit of a career, or money, pursuit of a person, place or thing. And so we wind up giving these things such total devotion and priority that we become insensitive to deeper realities, blind to human needs, indifferent to the lives, joys, and needs of those around us. We can totally lose our ability to still our life, be a mount of encounter. The ability to hear and listen are great gifts that we have received from God. During the Lenten week ahead, we have the opportunity to reflect on our “listening.” As we do so, we can hear the words of the Father over and over: “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”