SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT March, Lion, Snow
Today we welcome guest writer Tom Keevey who we are pleased to announce will be a regular new voice and contributor to CALLED.
Do you remember the saying: “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” Well, at least on the East Coast, snowfall piled up in record amounts as many of you know and then, February ended like a lion. This engaging scenario of white snow blanketing our land reminds me of the love of God spreading throughout the Universe resulting in the creation of untold and awesomely beautiful realities.
The gospel for the first Sunday in March features Jesus with his three apostles on Mount Tabor speaking to the prophets of the Old Testament and then being transfigured before them, that is a Divine light shown through his humanity and revealed something other than the human person of Jesus. No wonder they were struck with fear and fell to the ground only to have Jesus tell them to get up and do not be afraid.
On an afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky Thomas Merton, Trappist monk, priest, author, and mystic was standing on a street corner and watching the people go by, he was overwhelmed by the feeling of how much he loved them and how much God loved them and they were unaware of the Divine light that they were emanating. As far as I know this is the only city that commemorates a mystical event by a sign describing the life of Thomas Merton.
The Jesuit priest, theologian, and paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin writes about the divine bursting through the reality of daily life if we could only see it which he called a Diaphany, that is the divine embedded in this vast universe and shining through. During this time of Lent it is an opportunity to pause and see the divine in the world that surrounds us. Both Thomas Merton and Pierre Chardin call us to see the divine in every person we meet and all reality that surrounds us producing within us a sense of reverence and gratitude. And if we tremble, remember that Jesus tells us: “Do not be afraid.”
Thomas Keevey
Tom has studied and worked with Fr. Thomas Berry, C.P. in the area of environmental studies at the former Riverdale Center for Religious Research in the Bronx, NY and in Greensboro, NC where Fr. Berry retired. Tom has published several articles on spirituality and ecology in Emmanuel and Stauros Notebook magazines.
