“And a cloud came, covering them in shadow; and there came a voice from the cloud, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.’ Then suddenly, when they looked round, they saw no one with them any more but only Jesus.” Mark 9:2-10
I like to think of the forty day season of Lent as a season of “cloud and shadow.” Not in the negative sense of a dreary winter’s day. But rather in the positive sense of being covered and cloaked in the cloud and shadow of God’s word.
Before experiencing Jesus’ glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples first had to enter into the cloud of unknowing and experience the shadow of God’s mercy. Only then could they hear the voice that spoke: “This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.”
The cloud and shadow invite me to slow down, pause and reflect on what my relationship with Christ really means.
To listen. To listen to God’s word and also to God’s silence in periods of silent meditation.
Listen to nature. Listen to my neighbor. Listen to my enemy! Listen!
To simplify. Simplify my calendar. My activity. My recreation.
To clarify. Clarify my values. My vision. My goals. My vocation.
Perhaps, then, when the cloud is gone and the shadow passes, I will look around and see only Jesus. Jesus in every area and activity of my life–Jesus in each one I meet. Jesus in me.
“This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.”
“There must be a time of day when the one who
makes plans forget his plans,
and acts as if he had no plans at all.
There must be a time of day when the one who has
to speak falls very silent.
and her mind forms no more propositions,
and she asks herself:
Did they have a meaning?”
There must be a time
when the person of prayer goes to pray
as if it were the first time in their life
they had ever prayed,
when the man of resolutions puts his resolutions aside
as if they had all been broken,
and he learns a different wisdom.”
-Thomas Merton, from NO MAN IS AN ISLAND
