Pastors Notes from 2/26/2024
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February 26, 2024Silvio Jose Baez, Auxiliary Bishop of Managua, Nicaragua, has attempted to shepherd the Catholic Church in a country that is the second poorest in the Western Hemisphere. Of the country’s six million citizens, half are Catholic; and the Church has faced increasing limitations by the authoritarian government. One of the Nicaragua’s bishops, voicing support for the struggling and poor, was convicted of treason, stripped of his citizenship, and sentenced to 26 years in prison without a trial. In 2022 the Vatican embassy in Nicaragua was ordered by the government to close, and the Vatican ambassador expelled. Through it all Bishop Silvio Jose Baez remains steadfast in his faith, lifting up the hope of his people much maligned. His reflection on the grace of the Transfiguration in our everyday lives alongside those in Managua bears consideration.
When Jesus reached the top of the mountain, he was transfigured before the eyes of those three disciples: “his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light” (cf. Mt 17:2). Jesus wanted that dazzling light, which anticipated his resurrection, to fill the disciples with strength and hope. Jesus wanted them to understand that pain, injustice, evil, and death do not have the last word in history. They would soon experience the night of Jesus’ passion and death, and it was important that they go through that terrible night with the awareness that their darkness was not forever. No night in our lives lasts forever. Jesus led those three disciples to the top of that mountain not to take them away from reality and forget about the problems, the fatigue, and the struggles of everyday life; he took them to that mountain so that they could distance themselves from reality and have a broader and deeper vision of life. From the top of a mountain, the panorama is greater, the horizon broadens, and everything is seen in a different way. It isn’t healthy to live alone in the plain below, in the plain of the everyday routine, conditioned by the urgency of each day, full of fear about the challenges of reality. It’s necessary to get some distance and rise above the swamps of failure, mediocrity, and hopelessness. We must go up the mountain and leave behind for a moment the fears and sadness that paralyze us. We must climb the mountain and allow ourselves to be enlightened and transfigured by Jesus. Sometimes we go through painful situations and dark moments that overwhelm us and seem to have no solution. Problems pile up, and we are frightened by unexpected illness and the loneliness of death. On the journey of faith, we often feel that we lack strength, that the demands of love overwhelm us, and that even God seems to be silent. In those moments we long for a light and a strength that allows us to gain a fresh look at things and helps us to see life and history from another perspective. At such moments it is important to distance ourselves from reality and go up the mountain with Jesus. Like Peter, James, and John, we too need to climb the mountain, over and over again, allowing the light of the Risen Lord to illuminate the darkness of our existence. Enlightened by Christ’s paschal victory we’ll be able to see the light that hides discreetly in all of life’s darkness, we’ll be able to overcome our pessimism, and we won’t be crushed by our failures, nor closed in by our narrow human calculations. The light of his love gives us a fresh look at life and history, the strength to continue fighting for a new world, and it doesn’t allow our hope to wither and fade. Moments of prayer and silence to be with the Lord and look at him—the time we take to be with him and let his light transfigure us—these are not useless moments. They are more fruitful. . . .Illuminated by the light of Jesus, we will not be sowers of darkness or prophets of bad news—we already have too many of those—but we will humbly spread small glimmers of light wherever darkness seems to reign.
May our hope this Lenten journey reflect Henri Nouwen’s prayer:
"O lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones. Let me find you again. Amen."
God Bless, Fr. Tim
FYI: "Do you wish your prayer to fly toward God? Make for it two wings: fasting and almsgiving." (St. Augustine)
