Podcast: 

homily20100228.mp3

4 Minutes Audio: 

4Minute20100228.mp3

You know life has a certain cycle but it sort of ebbs and flows in ways that are predictable but maybe not in such an easy manner to understand always.  Like even in the middle of a day, there are good times and bad times; there is light and darkness in each day.  And then in our seasons, who does not marvel that when spring time comes and we see those beautiful flowers start to appear and the branches producing their flowers and leaves, it is gorgeous to see when the fullness of summer arrives.

And yet there is the other end of the cycle when fall arrives and the leaves start to drop off and we get ready for a stark coldness of winter.  There is that cycle of life that happens on an annual basis but also something that happens in our lifetime too.  I mean when our children are born and they are young, everything about it seems to be full of joy about how they grow up and they learn; they do stuff and it is wonderful to watch them grow up.  There is such a great joy from that.

Yet at the end of life, we also witness when our parents get old, frail, or when they can no longer do things for themselves and it is hard to watch them seemingly suffer endlessly.  Two ends of the same spectrum of life itself.  And it happens.  There are also other things that happen to us as well, but we choose to recognize that God is in the midst of all of it.

In today’s gospel reading about the Transfiguration is a reminder that God is present in the mountain top experience but also it is in the next section of the gospel that Jesus comes down from the mountain and in all the three synoptic gospels are in agreement as to what happens next, which is that He comes down the mountain and the other disciples present him with a young boy who is possessed by a demon, and they cannot seem to expel the demon so Christ comes and heals the young boy.  As if to remind us that there are mountain top experiences and there are the valley experiences but that Christ is present to us through both of those circumstances or wherever we are at.

You see in today’s gospel, the whole mountain top experience with Moses and Elijah is to help us recall how God works in history.  When Moses came, God spoke in thunderous, clapping of the clouds, and loud claps of thunder from the heavens and everything was loud and so dramatic.  Everyone was afraid except Moses to appear before God.  Then Elijah comes and he is waiting to hear from God and instead of a loud clap of thunder or a thunderous rain or loud, dark clouds, God speaks in a whispering wind to him.  God is in the loud and God is in the quiet and silent. 

Then along comes Jesus and in this dark cloud, the voice from heaven says, “Listen to Christ.  Listen to Him.”  And that is who we are called to listen to.  It is to listen to that Christ, who is always with us, always from within.  And sometimes it is hard for us to fathom that, and in the great times, it is sometimes easier to see our God present to us.  When things are going well and our children are doing well and our families are doing well.  We have a job and all is well, but when things are not going so well, it seems to be harder to know that God is with us.

When we have trouble in our family or maybe a potential breakup in our marriage; or a loss in our family through death or through abandonment; or we have illness and the darkness comes in and it seems to be all that much harder to see our God in our life, but see, in today’s scripture, we are reminded that Christ is present in it all.  In the mountain top experiences, in the joys of our life and in the valleys of our life when there is darkness and that God appears in the midst of it all.

It is the ebb and flow of life, but what God is saying and reassuring us is that He is there in all of it.  It is like what  we are watching right now; we are watching the brilliant Winter Olympics and all the Olympians compete with great energy and at the same time God is present to all of them and to all of us who watch and then we have in Chile a massive earthquake  and God is present to all of them.

There are things that happen to us for instance the Olympian figure skater Joannie Rochette, who the day before she was scheduled to perform her figure skating, received word that her mother died from a massive heart attack.  So what does she do?  She recognizes that in the midst of all of this, God is still present and she goes and continues to compete and shows the depth of the human spirit to persevere.  But it is more than just our will; it is more than just our acting out; it is ours in concert with what God promises us, that He is here with us no matter what.  In the good times and in the bad times.  In the darkness and in the bright light.

So that is what we come to celebrate at the Eucharist.  There are some of us here today who are wonderful; things are going wonderfully as I said, and then there are others who are really struggling but we come to the table to gather strength from one another, to receive Christ and to be reassured that Christ is with us at all times, on the mountain tops and in the valleys.  In the light and in the darkness.  Christ is always with us.