Second Sunday of Lent 8 th March 2009

Hope Lent is going well for you. It is still early days. If you haven’t got into the spirit of this season of grace there is no need to panic. There is time to recover and make up lost ground.

As a Christian community we got off to a great start on Ash Wednesday with Mass packed out three times that day as we were encouraged to ‘Repent and believe the Good News’. Then we moved on to our Friday evening Mass for Lent followed by the Way of the Cross. There is an increased attendance at our morning weekday Mass at 8.30 a.m. People have also availed of the Sacrament of Penance to renew the grace of God within us.

But there are also less obvious ways in which God is working this Lent. Our Lenten Project this year with it two outreaches had a magnificent collection last weekend. The sheer generosity of so many people is wonderful to witness. Next week there will be a graph or pictorial representation as to how the collection is going. On the weekend of 21/22 March the founder of PIPS will come from Belfast to put before us the daily struggle for life among people who are suicidal. There will be updates also about the Maternity Unit being built in the Democratic Republic of Congo by our Passionist community.

The Lenten Calendar is being used by people to take the Word of God in their hand each day and discover what God is saying in the depths of prayer. The Bible Study sessions carries this forward. Last weekend it was wonderful to see 300 Catechumens gather at Notre Dame to signal their intention of receiving Baptism and Confirmation at the Easter Vigil. St Joseph’s Parish had some of our candidates there and we were placed almost at the top of the Cathedral. We will have four adult baptisms with confirmation along with another three for confirmation at our Easter Vigil. There is also a candidate who will be confirmed at Notre Dame on the eve Pentecost. We also have our young people preparing for sacraments in our CCD programme. These are blessings around us in this holy season of Lent.

Today we are brought up a high mountain to see Jesus transfigured and to hear the wonderful words, ‘This is my Son, The Beloved. Listen to him.’ When we do listen to Him there is a worrying warning not to tell any of this until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. Surely Peter had it right when he enthused, ‘Rabbi, it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah’. But the Transfiguration has the shadow of the Cross prefigured in it. Jesus transfigured on the high mountain of Moriah will be on the Cross on Mount Calvary by Good Friday. Instead of Moses and Elijah flanking Jesus, on Calvary there will be two criminals. At the Transfiguration there is brightness whereas on Calvary Jesus will be deformed by blood and pain.

At the moment of the Transfiguration of Jesus it was hard to believe that all would be so changed on the Cross and its awful suffering. Beyond our sufferings and behind and beyond death itself there is a new risen life awaiting us. During Lent we draw breath from our daily comings and goings and spend time listening to and talking with Jesus about the mystery of his Transfiguration and about His death on the Cross. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.

Aidan Troy, C.P. (Aodhán Ó Troighthigh, C.P.)