UP A HIGH MOUNTAIN

 

UP A HIGH MOUNTAIN

A young boy plays outside my window. A hedge divides us but I hear his shrieks of delight and sometimes his wails of distress. His mood changes rapidly.

Twenty years ago, Russia wanted to join the North Atlantic Alliance and 59% voted to join the European Union. Two years ago today, they invaded Ukraine.

Hidden away in the early chapters of the Bible is an account we read each year as Lent gets underway of Abraham climbing a mountain to offer his son Isaac in sacrifice. His offering is accepted and his son is spared.  As Lent gives way to Easter, Jesus carries his cross up the hill of Calvary. His offering is accepted and he endures a terrible death. Stat crux, the Carthusians say, dum volvitur orbis.  The cross stands still, while the world goes round.

Everywhere, in the scriptures, there are echoes of the cross. And everywhere in our daily news these echoes reoccur. Alexei Navalny’s death makes no sense otherwise nor does the death of 7,000 children in Gaza.

Each second Sunday of Lent we read of the ‘high mountain’, where Jesus showed himself in glory to Peter, James and John. But the conversation was about the cross. The disciples had no idea what he was talking about and neither do many today. Mountains? Climbing a mountain raises you up, gives you a far and wide view. In Nyanga, in Eastern Zimbabwe, you can even drive up high and look about. ‘World’s View’ it is called. It is the bigger picture.

And the bigger picture is that our lives make no sense without the cross. It is the threshold we have to cross (that word again) one way or another. Alexei Navalny, while he was alive, reminded us of Nelson Mandela. Mandela survived. Navalny did not. Yet one thing they had in common was a sense of humour and a sense of humour means one has risen above the disputes and entanglements politics and indeed day to day life throws up. Navalny too went up a high mountain and there is no telling the influence he will now have.

Belief in the power of sacrifice is common to many cultures and I first came to know it when I was young and found it written on my uncle’s mortuary card when he was killed in the Great War: ‘a person can have no greater love than to lay down their life for their friends’. Lent is here, as I wrote last week, to lengthen our view; to see the destiny of humanity beyond the immediate view. It should be obvious to those dazzled by the power of weapons of war. But it isn’t. Human beings still narrow their vision and exclude compassion. They have no notion of how history will see their actions. Perhaps children understand.

25 February 2024  Lent 2B       Gen 22:1-18      Rom 8:31-34    Mk 9:2-10

WIDEN YOUR SPACE

 

WIDEN YOUR SPACE

The word ‘Lent’ comes from Northern Europe. It describes a practice, dating from the early Church, of preparing for Easter and recalls the forty years the Israelites wandered in the desert and the forty days Jesus spent preparing for his mission. In many European languages the word used is not ‘Lent’ but a word that derives from ‘forty’. Norman Tanner, an English Jesuit, gives us a sample,

Quaranta (Italian), Cuaresma (Spanish), Carême (French). The English word ‘Lent’ has another, very beautiful derivation. It comes from the Anglo-Saxon (early English) word meaning to ‘lengthen’. Lent comes at a time when the hours of daytime are ‘lengthening’ in Europe, as spring approaches, and so it is a time when we too can ‘lengthen’ spiritually, when we can stretch out and grow in the Spirit.

Isaiah urges us:

Widen the space of your tent, extend the curtains of your home, do not hold back. Lengthen your ropes, make your tent pegs firm for you will burst out to right and to left … (54:2)

The woman who cared for my parents in their old age once wrote to me during the dark, cold and often wet days after Christmas in Europe, ‘there’ll be a stretch in the evening from now until St Patrick’s Day (17 March).’ She was talking of the weather but that is what Tanner also points to – as an image of life in the Spirit. We are to stretch ourselves, lengthen our reach, in preparing for Easter.

And Tanner also makes a further point. You do not have to do anything. You just wait for the days to lengthen. So it is with Lent. Sometimes we think of Lent as a time when we ‘do’ things; as children we were encouraged to give up sweet things. As adults we are encouraged to give up excessive TV or internet exploration. These are good but the message here is to stretch our capacity, open our doors. Allow the Spirit to be heard in our hearts.

The forty days are to be seen as a time of receiving rather than doing, relaxing rather than achieving, listening rather than speaking. Where there are resentments, we stretch out our tent to build harmony; where there are quarrels, forgiveness. Anger gives way to patience, hatred to peace. These are gifts we receive. We cannot manufacture them on our own.

And these are the ways we prepare for the climax of the Incarnation, God ‘with us’ in the flesh. So much with us that he suffers all our grievous wounds. Carries all our burdens. Lent is a deeply joyful time. We are in the midst of struggle but victory is certain.  

18 February 2024  Lent Sunday 1 B    Gen 9:8-15  1 Pet 3:18-22      Mk1:12-15

 

LET US GO ELSEWHERE

 

LET US GO ELSEWHERE

The first day, as Mark records it, of Jesus’ ministry ends in triumph. ‘The whole town came crowding round the door.’ He was instantly famous and the disciples knew it and bathed in his reflected glory. They wanted more. ‘Everyone is looking for you’, they said and they expected him to go on building up his reputation.

He could be ‘The Prophet of Capernaum’. He could build a following. There could be a little ‘contribution’ for each healing. The money would roll in. No need for that laborious fishing all night in the dark, in the cold, in the wet. He could build a stadium, an amphitheatre, like the Romans did. And he could build a palace nearby. It would be great and we would get our share.

But, no. He said, ‘Let us go elsewhere’. He was not at all happy. They had completely misunderstood what he was doing. They delighted in the healing but he had not come just to work wonders, to enjoy status. He wanted to heal them in their deepest selves. He knew it would cost them a lot. And it would cost him a lot to show them the way. It would require them to change. That would be painful. But the result would be deep peace, happiness.

We have just emerged from 40 days of Christmas. The child in the arms of Simeon in the temple closes the infancy introduction of the Messiah. ‘This child is for the rise of many’ - if they get the message. If they changed their way of thinking. But there would be opposition - from vested interests.

Some understood. Slowly, they got the message. ‘Here is something new.’ They found joy in their new life. And this was what Jesus wanted. He did not want fame or fuss. He just wanted people to get in touch with the core of their being. To move from the tyranny of the immediate concerns of family, work, relationships – important as they are. He wanted them to ‘go elsewhere’, to go deeper, to begin to sense they are made to share in the divine life.

‘You believe just because I said I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than that!’ Nathaniel went ‘elsewhere’ with Jesus. He saw immediately he was the Messiah. He came to grasp he had to go beyond his Jewish traditions. He had to change. To grow. It was a tough journey, following Jesus. But he got the point. And the early Christians did too. And the Church was born. It still struggles with people misunderstanding. It always will – until the end.

4 February 2024    Sunday 5 B    Job 7:1-7  1 Cor 9:16…23     Mk 1:29-39