2nd Sunday of Lent Year B - 4/3/2012 - Gospel: Mk 9,2-10

High and low
When we watch a foot ball game we have moments of high and low spirit. There are also moments of joy and sadness, of hope and disappointment because the spirit of the crowd depends on what is happening out there. It changes according to the performance of the key players of the team that you give support to. When your team plays well it brings joy and happiness; when the opponent team plays well it brings you dissatisfaction and frustration. Besides the performance of the team there is another element that is greatly affecting of your feelings. It is the atmosphere of the place. It can either stimulate or dampen your spirit. It is provoked when your team scores a point and you are happy and made tremendous sounds to cheer with others; when other team scores a point you sit there watching other people cheer up their team. Our feelings are in the state of flux, changing from this moment to the next. The feeling of being defeated is increased when there isn't any hope of catching up, especially when time for the game is really running out. Our earthly feelings are driven by a combination of factors. 

The spirit of the crowd is influenced by three elements: the feelings of each individual; the atmosphere of the place and the performance of each player. Our earthly feelings work in the universal formula. It is giving and receiving. If you give good feeling you receive joy and happiness and if you show disappointment you receive sadness and dissatisfaction. There is another element that is worth to mentioning and that is each individual receives in return much more than s/he has contributed to the crowd. The joy you give to the crowd as an individual, you receive back as the joy and happiness and atmosphere, not of an individual but of individuals, as a crowd.

Unlike our earthly feeling, the experience of wonder and astonishment that the Apostles Peter, James and John enjoyed up in the mountain has nothing to do with human contribution. The Apostles have made no contribution to the heavenly happiness and yet they receive with astonishment and amazement. The brightness, the shinning and the immensity and peacefulness of the place is what they have experienced for the first time. It is the generosity of God who gives them a favour, allowing them to have a glimpse of the heavenly kingdom. It is the place after finishing the pilgrimage of this earth they will enter to enjoy the heavenly happiness and reunite with the Patriarch Moses and Elijah. It is the free gift Jesus shows the Apostles before his suffering and death.

Sufferings, illnesses, trials and death are real in life. When they come do not allow them to crush our spirit, to bind us, to bog us down, but to free ourselves by looking up to the high mountain with high spirit where the glory, wonder and amazement is waiting for those who place their hope in Jesus.

Unlike earthly feelings they don't last long. They come and go. The heavenly feelings the Apostles have experience will last for the rest of their lives and beyond. It is the unforgettable experience that they continue to discuss amongst themselves, especially the phrase, "What is rising from the dead" could mean?

We now understand it means from death to life, from below to above, from the tomb to empty tomb and the resurrection in Christ.

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