From Where I Sit                        Judith Lynch (writing from Melbourne)                            Judith's website

March 3, 2012                     Wonderful To Be Here              Judith's previous articles  

2nd Sunday of Lent – Year B      

We call it the transfiguration. Even as a primary school child I could say it but I had no idea what it meant. It was all very mysterious. Peter, James and John wanted to stay put on that mountain because in some deep part of themselves they knew that they were part of a “God moment”. They couldn’t adequately put words around it, but they felt its mystery and transcendence right down to their toes. They also knew that what they witnessed went way beyond their experience of Jesus up to that point.  

We all have experiences like this, something that we might label as spiritual. If we try to talk about it to someone we love or trust, we run out of words and end up saying something along the lines of  “You had to be there….”
Spirituality is true when we recognise that in an experience we have been touched by God.  

John of the Cross, whom we call a mystic, once said that the language of God is the experience that God writes into our lives. This week, try to find time to think back to one or more of those “God moments” in your own life. Relive them and as you do so thank God for the gifts that they were and are. 

Recall a moment of great joy ……communal or personal.

“Lord, it is wonderful to be here.”  

Recall a place where time stood still.

“Lord, it is wonderful to be here.”  

Recall a shaft of understanding, a knowing that was like a shaft of light.

“Lord, it is wonderful to be here.” 

Recall a hurtful occasion, when you were able to forgive. 

“Lord, it is wonderful to be here.”  

Recall a moment when peace slipped surprisingly into your spirit and stayed for a while.

“Lord, it is wonderful to be here.” 

Sometimes a smell or a sound takes you straight back to another time and place.

“Lord, it is wonderful to be here.”  

Recall an answered prayer.

“Lord, it is wonderful to be here.”  

Recall a time when you recognised that you were loved.

“Lord it is wonderful to be here.”  

God is a God of surprises. God is mystery.
It takes courage sometimes to trust God’s voice within us.
In that moment, like Moses before the burning bush, God says :  

“----------------------, take off your shoes. This is holy ground. “  

And I respond,  

“Lord, it is wonderful to be here.”