The transfiguration. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
As Lent begins, the words of Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson’s “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” come to me:
Just a closer walk with Thee, Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee, Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
When my feeble life is o’er, Time for me will be no more,
Guide me gently, safely o’er, To Thy kingdom's shore, to Thy shore.
The hymn is joyful and has punch! Now that I am 80 and still enjoying teaching at the Fiji Seminary, the final stanza, sung by Willie, has ever more meaning for me. My feeble life is winding down, and I do need the Lord to, “guide me gently safely o’er.” The seminarians are helping with this at the moment, of course, but not quite as “gently” as the Lord. Listen to this song a few times during Lent, and it will invite you to come closer to Jesus.
The season of Lent kickstarts rather brutally with Matthew 6: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving:
- Prayer: deepening connection with God and seeking grace and guidance
- Fasting: replacing physical desires (or addictions) for spiritual dependence on God
- Alms: sharing what we have with those in need so we can be the hands and feet of Christ into a world that is in much need of compassion, kindness, justice, and hope
Late last year, Pope Leo went to Nicaea in Turkey to commemorate the 1700th anniversary of Nicaea, whose creed we pray every Sunday. It was at Nicaea that 40 days of fasting were introduced in imitation of Jesus. We are quite lucky not to live in times like that – one meal a day! (That was also Columban’s rule for his monks!)
Instead, fasting during Lent can be more practical, such as skipping a meal, giving up a favourite snack, or cutting down on internet time, which can be replaced with a few decades of the rosary. Pope St John Paul II wrote in a marvellous letter titled “Rosarium Virginis Mariae”
“The Rosary is especially necessary for our troubled times. In the face of violence… God should be implored for the gift of peace. The Rosary itself is a prayer for peace since it contemplates the Prince of Peace … (and) because it is a prayer to the one who is “our peace,” (Ephesians 2:14) (this)can have a tranquil effect on those who pray it.”
For this year’s Lenten season, I recommend we all spend time with the transfiguration of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew (17:1-9), which is commemorated on the second Sunday of Lent each year.
Let’s go up the mountain and spend the 40 days with him there, because it is on the mountain that the disciples discovered who Jesus really was! If you remember, they were not at his baptism when God claimed Him as His son! But now on the mountain, they hear the Father’s voice saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Speaking of the Transfiguration, Pope Benedict wrote,
“The essential events of Jesus' activity proceeded from the core of his personality and this core was his dialogue with the Father. The very basis and the abiding precondition of the Christian confession of faith: (that) only by entering into Jesus' solitude, only by participating in what is most personal to him, his communication with the Father, can one see what this most personal reality is; only thus can one penetrate to his identity.
This is the only way to understand him and to grasp what "following Jesus" means. The Christian confession is not a neutral proposition; it is prayer, only yielding its meaning within prayer. The person who has beheld Jesus' intimacy with his Father and who has come to understand him from within is called to be a "rock" in the Church.” – Behold the Pierced One, Ignatius Press, 1985, 17-20
As we pray, fast, and help those in need this Lenten season, like the disciples who walked with Jesus, may we also encounter God in both the ordinary and extraordinary parts of the 40-day journey, singing:
Just a closer walk with Thee, Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee, Let it be, dear Lord, let it be
Columban Fr Donal McIlraith lives and works in Fiji.
Related links
- Read more from the current Columban eBulletin
