SYSTEM UPDATE

March 16, 2025 – Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031625.cfm)

What is the best thing to do if & when we get lost our way?

The best way to do if & when we are lost is to first stop our journey, and look for some higher grounds, so that we may know and see where we are, where we have been, where we want to go and the best way or path to take. Meaning, we have to stop first then climb a high place – a hill, mountain or a tree, so that from there we get a much wider perspective of our journey and travel.

Losing our way may also reflect our experience of life. There are times in our lives that we feel lost & confused in all our endeavors and dreams. Because of this, like being and getting lost in the forest, it is easy for us to feel tired, dry, afraid, anxious and hopeless in life to reach and achieve our aspirations, hopes and dreams in life.

Our gospel today narrates us the Transfiguration of the Lord. We hear Jesus brought his apostles to Mt. Tabor so that they would witness the glory of God revealed before them. After they have followed the Lord in his preaching and ministry in many towns and villages, the apostles have now experienced weariness and exhaustion in their journey, even to the point others have cast doubt in the Lord’s person and authority.

For them to be inspired (to be in-spirit) and encourage once again, Jesus brought then to mountain of Tabor to have a preview or prelude of God’s glory so that they themselves taste and witness God’s glory made manifest in Jesus Himself. And then, they hear & encounter anew for themselves the call & challenge from God to listen and have faith in Jesus, his beloved Son.

Sometimes in life, we need to stop for awhile from all our endeavors and aspirations, and then, climb the Lord’s mountain in order for us to view a much wider perspective in life and our journey. Like in our modern lingo of cellphones, we need a higher ground to get a good signal; sometimes we need to climb the mountain with the Lord for us to get a good and strong signal of God’s presence and love.

We call this nowadays as RETREAT with the Lord – a time in our life where we stop or slowdown from all our plans, aspirations and activities in life, spend some time to distance from our usual routine and look and climb for a high place in order to get a wider perspective of our life. Time and place to ask ourselves: “where am I now in relation to my life, dreams, aspirations and commitments? Am I lost or in the right path? What else should be done? What need to be change?”

Retreat would also mean to treat ourselves again & anew to God’s vision of life-glory. In other word, to take care & nourish ourselves anew to the vision & fervor of God’s glory. And above all, in the Lord’s transfiguration & our retreat moments, we are challenged also to be “transfigured”, i.e in our modern-tech language, to do “system update” for us to be in sync, upgraded, & outfitted with the current plans of God for our redemption.

As we follow the Lord, as Christian, it is healthy then for us to sometimes to retreat & be transfigured, i.e., to stop and climb up on a higher ground with the Lord in order to have a wider perspective of life, to witness God’s presence revealed in Christ, and to  hear again God’s call to us “This is my Son, the beloved. Listen to Him”, and so be updated & challenged anew of our vocation to follow Him.

As our way of doing a retreat with the Lord these days, may our Lenten discipline of prayer, fasting & almsgivings bring us to a much deeper spiritual updating and growth in our Christian faith & journey now & always.

Amen.