SQUARE PEG – ROUND HOLE Sister Mary Christian Cross Sunday, March 2, 2014
INTRODUCTION: Today we are aware that we are keeping the Last Sunday before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday later this week. The Readings somewhat surprisingly are those which refer to the Feast of the Transfiguration. I have been puzzled by this for some time and am grateful to Fr. Douglas Williams for pointing out that as we have, in the last few weeks, been presented with the readings pertinent to the Epiphanies of Our Lord, (the appearance of the wise men just after the Christmas Festival, the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, in some years by the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana). And that it is fitting that we should be presented today by the Transfiguration as a culmination of the Epiphanies of Jesus before the Ascension. LECTIONS: 1. Immediately before this account of the Transfiguration, Jesus has made it clear to his disciples that he must suffer – and that his followers should expect to suffer also. “If any man wants to be my disciple let him take up his Cross ……”. Glorification comes after the Crucifixion. And here, in the Transfiguration there is a preview of Glorification. Not only that but the narrative reveals the juxtaposition of Moses, representing the Law, and Elijah, representing the Prophets, with the Voice from the cloud reminiscent of Moses going up the mountain to confer with God in the Old Testament. Here the Voice of God acknowledges and verifies Jesus as “my son, in whom I am well pleased , in whom I am well pleased.” 2. During Advent the humanity of Jesus is emphasized with the coming of the Christ-child to Mary and now we have the identification of God with the human Jesus as Jesus is transfigured on the mountain. Since December we have been reminded of the humanity of Jesus in the Advent-Christmas cycle. Now as we begin the Lent-Paschaltide Cycle we are presented with the Gospel passage which manifests the God head of Jesus. 3. Lent is a time when many of us consider not only our humanity with all its failings and its gifts, but also the fact that as members of the Body of Christ (Col: 3-3) our lives are “hid with Christ in God”. This is a mystery beyond our imagination, but it is one to which we are called, and for which we are to be prepared. This is why Lent can be a time of deepening our relationship with Christ through the many opportunities offered to us in the Church and beyond. In a sense we are to seek the grace to hone our skills in order to be with Jesus in His Transfiguration.
LENTEN EXERCISES: 1. Recently a friend gave me a copy of Commander Chris Hadfield’s book “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life”. You may have it – it makes a good read. Commander Hadfield in his introduction details his desire to become an astronaut from the age of nine. He describes the years of preparation for his becoming an astronaut. He also tells of the thrill of walking outside the space capsule for the first time. But before he actually walked outside, tethered to the space station, he vividly recounts his feelings. “Floating in the airlock before my first spacewalk, I knew I was on the verge of even rarer beauty. To drift outside, fully immersed in the spectacle of the universe while holding onto a spaceship orbiting Earth at 17,500 miles per hour – it was a moment I’d been dreaming of and working toward most of my life. But poised on the edge of the sublime, I faced a somewhat ridiculous dilemma: How best to get out there? The hatch was small and circular, but with all my tools strapped to my chest and huge pack of oxygen tanks and electronics strapped onto my back, I was square. Square astronaut, round hole.” He realized quickly that there would be no elegant entry into space, but that he would have to do some pretty fancy maneuvering to wriggle himself and all his gear through the round hole. (Obviously he was successful.) 2. Why do I recount this? As I pictured Chris Hadfield with his dilemma in space, and as I considered that we were about to enter the exercises of Lent, and as I contemplated the reality of the Spiritual Life and our desire to learn more of the Spiritual Life especially during Lent, I realized that for me at any rate I was a “square peg looking towards a round hole”. Here I am, encompassed about with the tools of the spiritual life, (spiritual reading, daily recitation of the Office, daily prayer, alms giving, to name a few) and with the life giving sacraments especially of the Eucharist, was I a square peg trying to wriggle through that round hole of the knowledge of eternal life with Christ in God? And like Chris Hadfield, with his tools and oxygen and electronics which could not be discarded in this life, I had to use my tools in an increasing discernment of how God wants me to use the gifts he has given me for that growth in love which is the only qualification for entry into eternal life. 3. Perhaps you can relate? “Square pegs and round holes”. It is for all of us to acquire the tools, and Lent is a good time to source them out. And we all need the food and drink of the Holy Eucharist to maintain our spiritual life just as we need oxygen and physical food and drink to maintain our physical well- being. Chris Hadfield spent many long years persevering in the
study and practice of learning to use his tools. So it is with us in learning to use the tools of the Spiritual Life. We all need to keep before us the certainty, the reality of Christ, God and Human, shown forth in the glory of the Transfiguration. We will be dazzled no doubt as were the disciples on the mountain, and we will probably make some of the same sort of thoughtless mistakes as did they when they wanted to make tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. We do not usually embrace the thought that the glory of the Transfiguration is a consequence, not an absence of suffering. We would like to think of ourselves as elegantly going from step to step on the so called “spiritual journey”, round pegs heading for round holes, when the truth of the matter is that we are indubitably square pegs reaching out the round hole of eternal life with God . ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS: The Anglican theologian John MacQuarrie in his book “Principles of Christian Theology” writes of the Transfiguration……
that it is not only a reminder of our participation through the Incarnation into the
glory of the God head, but also that, in so far as we participate in creation, then all creation is included in the ultimate plan of God to “gather up all things to himself”. (Ephes. 1:10). MacQuarrie asserts that this fact shows the ethical implications of the Transfiguration. We in our humanity are called to nurture and care for all creation in the responsibility of stewardship. The work of the Spiritual Life is not for ourselves only or even for our friends and neighbors, but it is also for the whole of creation, in which we “live and move and have our being”. CONCLUSION: The writer to the Ephesians includes a prayer for his reader which is appropriate for us as we enter into the exercises of Lent: Ephes: 1:17 “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to his great power.” “Square Christian, Round Hole, but chosen of God to do His will”.