Homily, Lent Week 2, Cycle C - Go up to the Mountain and pray: Taking time to listen to Jesus

While carrying out my Lenten discipline of prayer I’ve found that God has a sense of humor.    This Lent I’ve felt a need to spend some time in quiet prayer listening to God. I’m obligated to pray daily the liturgy of the hours, morning and evening prayer.  I’m pretty good at doing this on a daily basis but I fell out of the habit quiet prayer to listen to the Lord. I used to schedule weekly an hour of prayer in Eucharistic adoration.  So this week I planned to go to a Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration chapel on the North side of Indianapolis after a morning meeting. I was really looking forward to going to this chapel, as it was isolated and away from distractions.  After 5 minutes of quiet prayer some loud banging and clanking noise came from just outside the hall. This continued on for about 10 minutes and I was getting a bit annoyed.   It was very distracting to listen to God, but I was determined to stay.  Finally the noise stopped and it was quiet…for about 30 seconds.  Then a loud vacuum started up and I was getting distracted again.  An inspiration came to me from Peter in today’s Gospel, “Master, it’s good that we are here.”  So instead of being distracted I was content to be in the Lord’s presence.   Amazingly after making this peace with the noise stopped, and it was finally quiet again.  Praise the Lord!  This lasted for about another 30 seconds and until a very loud drill started up.  I think this was God’s humorous way of telling me that things always don’t go as planned.  

At the start of today’s Gospel Jesus goes up to the mountain with Peter, James, and John to do something very important: to pray.   Jesus takes time to pray quite often so he can be in relationship with the Father.  If you listen to many of the Gospel stories you’ll find that Jesus takes time to pray before and after ministering to those who are in need.  It’s essential for his ministry.  So while Jesus is in prayer, what are Peter, James, and John doing? They were overcome with sleep possibly missing the transfigured Jesus because they were too tired to pay attention. 

Our busy and hectic lives can make us tired and leave little time for prayer. We’re on fast-paced schedules from the time the alarm goes off in the morning till we get home at night.  If we get a break we’re using social media to catch up on family or friends.   After we get home we’re taking kids to practice, preparing dinner, and make sure that homework is done.  After the kids are in bed it’s finally quiet time to get things done for our self to get ready for the next day. After all that’s done maybe there’s some time pray, but exhaustion sets in. So you decide to pray a rosary and after 2 Hail Mary’s your sound asleep.  Does this sound familiar? 

Peter, James and John did finally wake up in time to see Jesus transfigured as well as Moses and Elijah.   Peter didn’t know quite what to make of it, and told Jesus, “Master, it’s good to be here. We should build three tents.” Peter may have thought Jesus was one of the prophets, but the Father reveals that “This is my Chosen Son, Listen to him.” This revelation of Jesus’ special relationship to the Father provided them insight into who Jesus was to give them strength to endure the trials accompanying Jesus in his ministry.  This revelation would soon be made known to many of Christ’s saving ministry as he journeyed to Calvary.

Would you like the Father to reveal Jesus to you?  How can we do this?  By following what God invited Peter, James, and John to do: Listen to him.   What’s a good way to do this? By following Jesus example of frequent prayer!  All of us are off to a great start for our week because the Mass is the greatest prayer of all. Jesus is present to us in His Word and the Eucharist.  Do you desire for the Mass to be a richer and deeper experience and to grow in your relationship with Jesus? If so consider scheduling time each day to listen to Jesus by reading the upcoming Sunday’s Scripture.  There are four readings for each Sunday that are listed each week in the bulletin or easily found online. If you spend just 5 minutes each day reading and reflecting on one of the Scripture passage you will be listening to Jesus daily.   Knock out these four and you’ll have a few more days listen to Jesus in prayer.

I shared my prayer experience earlier to let you know that prayer doesn’t have to be perfect.  You’re going to get distracted.  Your mind is will wonder.  You’ll get interrupted.  That’s all ok.   The important thing is spending time to listen to Jesus. There’s also going to be times that you may hear him. But most often it will be in encounters with people in your every day experiences that God is working through.  It could be through the kindness that another person extends to you or you being present to someone who’s struggling.  By taking time in prayer you’ll be more awake to the presence of God in your experiences throughout the day.

I’ve suggested scheduling time to be in prayer.  If you really want to listen to Jesus, make an appointment calendar to be with Him.   Most of us schedule appointments for important matters in our lives.  Why not do the same for prayer?  A friend of mine shared a saying with me about finding time to pray by Fr. Hilary Ottensmeyer, a Benectine Monk.   Until you’re convinced that prayer is the best use of your time, you will not find the time for prayer.   Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta also said, “There is nothing more important than prayer.” I hope you’ll find that time in prayer is worth it.  I invite each of you this week to schedule some time to listen to Jesus in prayer and hope it grows into a regular habit. Let us now proceed to be strengthened by Jesus in the Eucharist so we can be prepared to listen to him.