Quiet Yourself for God

Second Sunday of Lent
March 8, 2020
Sr Phyllis Jaszkowiak

Happy Lent!  Lent brings gifts and one of those gifts is a deeper look into all that is, like the disciples in today’s gospel who saw beneath the Jesus standing before them.  What they saw was the God within Jesus, who is within us all, becoming visible.  

Moses and Elijah, great prophets and leaders, were seen talking with Jesus.  Moses received the law and Elijah received the words to lead the people back to worship the God who saves.  God is shown through people.
 
A cloud cast a shadow over them.  God had been manifested through the cloud leading the people out of slavery in Egypt, and through their 40 years of wandering in the desert.  A number of times the cloud was accompanied by fire.  God is shown through nature.
 
Then the words, “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.  Listen to Him.”  Powerful words then and powerful words now.  We should probably pay attention and listen well.
 
God continues to be made known today.  We just need a deeper sight and more acute hearing to see and hear God in our midst.  For God is in our midst.
 
If we quiet ourselves we can look at nature and see God there.  We may perhaps find ourselves a bit quiet at the end of the day and so can look around and see God, in a sunset, in a storm, in a cloud formation, even in our own backyard.
 
If we quiet ourselves we can experience God in others.  Perhaps in friends who help out when we need them, in a spouse we were just taking for granted, in a child who is giving us trouble, in a checker at the store who does the work with a smile, and in the children preparing for Baptism.
 
If we quiet ourselves we can hear God say to us, “You are my beloved daughter, You are my beloved son.”  It may come through being forgiven in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or at Mass, or when our beloved says the words, “I love you.”  God speaks through many people, in all languages and in all cultures.
 
Lent is this time to quiet ourselves, to find a time each day, maybe 6 or more minutes, to just sit with God.  
 
Take advantage of our parish’s Lenten gifts, each weekend at Mass, on Wednesday for Lenten Evening Prayer, and if possible for the discussion and prayer afterward, and on Friday for Stations of the Cross. 
 
Then perhaps, at some fine time, like the children receiving their first Baptismal anointing (Sunday) today, we also can be transfigured and God will shine through us.  We might not even know it, others will and give thanks for the gifts given.
 
So, this Lent, take the time for quiet, for God, for yourself.  Ask God to be able to see, to hear, to experience the depths of God in all that is around us and within us.  Then we will know that not only is God within all creation – even us – but that we walk within God – always.  We are never alone, we just need the eyes, the ears, the awareness to see, hear and experience God who is everywhere.