Renewal Of The Mind

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Renewal Of The Mind”

Second Sunday of Lent, Year A

In his letter to the Ephesians St Paul instructed them: “You should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth.” (Eph 4:22)

When Peter, James, and John see Jesus in the fullness of His glory, they, quite naturally, want to hang on to the moment. In an effort to hold on to this moment they want to erect three tents perhaps so that Moses, Elijah, and Jesus can stay with them for a while. But that was not to be. The vision doesn’t last. Before you know it, it’s all over and the time comes to return to the ordinary, routine affairs of daily life.

Hold on to the vision, Christ tells them. Keep this all to yourself until the Son of Man has been raised from the Dead!  What an impossible task!  Yet there can be no doubt that these men were deeply affected by what they saw. Seeing Christ in the fullness of His glory affected their thinking, their behavior, and their attitudes. Does what we hear today do the same for us?

If we so desire, the words of our Gospel today can have a great impact on our life. We too can be renewed in the spirit of our minds and be given a new mindset, one that will transform every aspect of our lives, renew and enliven our inner beings, empower us to do the difficult interior work that will allow us to grow more spiritually mature. You can call this renewal of the spirit of our minds a new thinking paradigm.

Peter, James, and John were fortunate to have been given this glimpse of the divine Jesus. We are somewhat more challenged today since we will not experience this until our life’s end. But now that the story’s been told, we have the vision. And the vision in today’s Gospel beckons us to begin the difficult, life-long work of crafting our new selves created in God’s way, a work that will come to completion only when we become one with Him in our eternal home.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom