It is an ancient tradition of the Church to include the reading of Christ’s transfiguration in the weeks of preparation before Easter. As we hear about Jesus being transfigured in front of some of his disciples, we can reflect upon how all of us as disciples of Christ will be transfigured one day, when our redemption comes to its completion in the Resurrection of the body, when we will behold the new heaven and new earth. But we do not have to wait for an end of our earthly lives to experience some of the reality of the transfiguration in our lives. Christ’s transfiguration can have an affect on us right now; it can open us to the way our lives can be transformed during these 40 days of Lent. The transfiguration was a central event in the life of Jesus. Our experience of our life in the Lord, and in his holy Church, is only the beginning of what is to come when we enter the fullness of God’s kingdom. Even now, we participate somewhat in that new reality. Our participation in the Church gives us a glimpse of that kingdom that is to come, of the eternal realities of that kingdom. Their witness to Christ’s transfiguration on the mountaintop strengthened the disciples’ faith. It came before they were to witness the events of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.
The faith of the disciples was to be shaken and tested through those events, so the transfiguration was there to encourage them, just as it is to encourage us as we hear this reading on the second Sunday of Lent. The community of saints is always with us in their prayers and intercessions to encourage us and help us as well. The holy woman we have chosen to discuss on this second weekend of Lent is St Therese of Lisieux. I find it fascinating that this cloistered nun who died of tuberculosis at the age of 24 in a remote area in rural France more than a century ago is one of the most popular saints in the modern world. Therese Martin, affectionately known by the faithful as St Therese, the Little Flower, left behind a notebook containing her story, as well as correspondence that she wrote to family and friends. She did not write huge volumes of complicated theology like St Augustine or St Thomas Aquinas. Yet, the profound nature of those writings and the way they have touched the souls of the faithful throughout the world prompted Pope John Paul II to name her as a Doctor of the Church, one of the few women to hold that distinction. Here is a quote from St Therese from a morning prayer that she wrote, consecrating her day to the Lord: “O my God! I offer you all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love.” Therese is a very much a product of her time and of the reality of her life. She was very much spoiled and dotted upon by her family, especially by her father after the death of her mother when Therese was only 4 years old. Therese entered the Carmelite convent when she was 15 years old - a very young age to become a religious sister. Therese’s writings and her story should be read in the spirit of her reality and in the reality of our faith. One suggestion I have is for you to read Therese’s autobiography The Story of a Soul during Lent, or to reread it if you have done so already. I reread her autobiography when I was on the Camino pilgrimage last year; the words really spoke to me on my journey, they touched my heart very profoundly. As you read Therese’s words, ask yourself: How is God speaking to you through her writings? Try to apply the spirit of her writings in the midst of your own reality. Even though Therese was a cloistered nun whose life was confined to her convent in rural France, Therese was named the co-patron saint of missionaries in 1927, along with the great Jesuit missionary St Francis Xavier. Even though Therese did not go overseas to the missions herself, she had a special love of the missions. She prayed for the missions; she prayed for the missionaries. She wrote letters of support to them. This is a reminder to all of us who feel we can do nothing if we are not missionaries living in a far away land that it is the little things that keep God's kingdom growing. We can all pray for the missionaries each day during Lent. You can ask yourself how can you be more missionary and support the missions on your journey during Lent and after Lent as well. St. Therese believed that the people of her time lived in too great a fear of Gods judgment. She saw this fear as stifling, not allowing people to experience the freedom of the children of God. She went to God as a child approaches a parent with open arms and a profound trust. Therese developed what she called “the little way.” She believed that we could translate little everyday acts and chores into ways of manifesting our love for God and our love for our brothers and sisters. In the convent, Therese worked as a sacristan by taking care of the altar and the chapel. She served in the refectory and in the laundry room. Her daily life had a lot of routines and ordinary acts. She believed that she infused these daily acts in loving commitment and the values of her faith. This is a way we can infuse the ordinary acts of our life with great love. This Lent, in the spirit of Therese, we are challenged to see the little things in life as a part of Therese’s “little way”, doing ordinary acts out of your love for God. Whether we are doing chores around the house, running errands, doing our work, interacting family members, these can be acts that are lifted up to God, acts that come out of our faith. Therese once said: “Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant deeds, count as nothing.” Just as as Jesus was transformed in the transfiguration, may the love of God transform us and the way we live our lives during these days of our Lenten journey.
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