I missed a day!!
I was travelling yesterday and thought I’d get to do something later in the day but laziness/tiredness or some member of that family seemed to get in the way. Not a lot to say today either other than hope all is going well for you along the way.
I was thinking yesterday about the Transfiguration and that moment when Jesus allowed himself be seen in a powerful way. His mountain-climbing companions got caught up in the moment and never wanted it to end. “It’s wonderful for us to be here. Let us build three tents” – but he had to gently take them back to .ground level. It was there they had to live their lives, make a difference and remember what they had seen.
This year, as we prepare for the International Eucharistic Congress, there is a lot of nostalgia surrounding 1932 and the major event that was the Eucharistic Congress that year. Those who remember it or those who have revisited it in photos and text, in song and in word, may well believe or, at least hope and pray, that this year’s event will be similar. It’s almost certain it won’t. Our country has changed much in those eighty years. Some say we have advanced and others might (with some justification question that. Either way, 1932 will not be recreated.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be! Maybe, like the moment of Transfiguration, it was a glimpe and a taste of what might be. Once seen and tasted, it had to be left there so that life in the small parish, in the family kitchen, in the office, field, school, hospital – wherever, life could continue – shaped by the memory of the moment The moment itself though cannot be captured in some sort of glass container – it was a lived moment and it passed.
We will have other moments – maybe even some today – when God reveals His presence; it might be a smile, a baby reaching out to hold your finger, a moment of recognition for you by one who has alzheimers – maybe a proposal, a date set for marriage – the flowering of a vocation. It might be a sunrise or sunset – just something or someone that catches your gaze and attention and says “there’s more to it – more to life – than we can really take in!” Accept that moment – maybe in prayer or at Mass – when God allows Himself be seen in a breathtaking way.
Enjoy the moment, remember it and be prepared to let it go. The moment might pass but the memory will remain.