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February 17, 2008: Second Sunday of
Lent
Today God says, “Listen.”
Effective communication is a true art form. It is easy for us to think that
communication just involves talking. We spend our time talking but it is clear
we are not communicating. Communication requires that someone speaks and
someone listens. Effectiveness comes when their roles reverse and they hear
what the other has to say. The essential component here is listening.
During
the second week of Lent God calls each of us to listen. He has something
important he wants each of us to hear.
When the pure light of
Christ was revealed on the mountaintop, God said, “This is my beloved Son
with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!” The transfiguration of Christ
is repeated every time we listen to him and allow our faith to be
strengthened. When we listen to God it is we who are transfigured.
During Lent, as we repent of
our sinfulness, we let the light of Christ consume the darkness within us.
Each of us was made in the image and likeness of God and in Christ’s
transfiguration we are transformed into our true identity.
Before we are transformed we
have to go to the mountaintop with Jesus like Peter, James and John. We
have to stay there long enough to spend some quality time with Jesus, to
pray and receive the strength that comes from God. On the mountaintop we
are prepared, encouraged and restored so that we can deal with the hardships
in the human condition.
Jesus left the mountaintop
to enter into his ministry of suffering. When we are transformed by the
light of Christ we leave our mountaintops to reveal Jesus to the world.
Even though there is hardship in sharing the Gospel, we are comforted with
the reality that after every Calvary there is always an Easter.
Listen. Can you hear
what God is saying to you today? When we repent of our sins we are
transformed and God will speak the same words to us that he spoke of Jesus.
This is my beloved child with whom I am well pleased. Listen to this one.
We are transfigured because Jesus saved us by shedding his blood on the
cross.
Repent. Jesus has
called us to a holy life.
With faith,
hope and love,
Father Steven C. Rogers
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