Jesus tells the parable of a grain of wheat.  When it is dropped into the earth, the seed “dies”.  But in the warmth and moisture of the earth, new life breaks out.  If we wish to follow Jesus, we must empty ourselves of self-centeredness, of the instinct for self-preservation at the expense of our sisters and brothers.  From seeds buried in the warm love and service of others, and watered by fidelity to our baptismal commitment, the Christian community grows into the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

By visiting Jesus at night, Nicodemus avoids the daylight that might reveal him as associating with a man who is unpopular with the religious institution.  To be unafraid or unashamed of professing our friendship with Jesus by the way we live always brings hard demands.  We often prefer the false safety of darkness to the light of Christ that exposes, for example, our selfish, racist, sexist, or violent selves.  Lent is designed to drag us out of darkness into the Easter light of Christ through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

The contemporary church cannot consider itself beyond the reach of Jesus’ whip or overturning hands.  When church leaders connive with unjust civil leaders, when fundraising takes precedence over faith raising, when we refuse to tolerate alternatives to religious practices and institutions, then ecclesial “cleansing” is needed by prophets driven by the Spirit of Jesus.  For us who are living stones in the Temple of Christ’s Body, Lent is also a time for cleansing the deep personal sanctuary of our hearts, for driving out of our lives whatever clutters our discipleship.

In the Gospel today, we hear the story of the Transfiguration, where Jesus revealed His glory to Peter, James, and John. A few days prior to this event, Jesus had predicted His Passion. He gave His disciples this revelation of glory to give them strength on the journey they would undertake.

The Transfiguration gives us courage, too. As we face hardships in our lives, we know the end of the story. It may not always be easy for us to be faithful to the Lord, but we know that there will be a peace and strength that the Lord will give us, even in this valley of tears.

Even now, we are being transfigured, transformed by the Spirit Who is at work in us, preparing us for eternal life. The Transfiguration is an exhortation to be courageous. We will have our own cross, our own Calvary. We know that the glory that is prepared for us will far surpass any of this. The hope of eternal life can never be extinguished.

The desert sand is not under our feet but in our hearts.  Its grit is the daily irritations and indefinable loneliness we often feel.  We need these Lenten weeks of heightened awareness of the importance of uncluttered spiritual and physical space we can discover the beauty of God and our sisters and brothers under the surface sands of our busy lives.  We may then become much wiser about the spiritual baggage that we as wilderness travelers, need to keep or discard in the trek toward Easter.