“On one such occasion the Shepherd said to Much-Afraid, “When you continue your journey there may be much mist and cloud. Perhaps it may even seem as though everything you have seen here of the High Places was just a dream, or the work of your own imagination. But you have seen reality and the mist which seems to swallow it up is the illusion. Remember, Much-Afraid, what you have seen before the mist blotted it out. Never doubt that the High Places are there, towering up above you, and be quite sure that whatever happens I mean to bring you up there exactly as I promised.”
Hinds Feet On High Places, Hannah Hurnard
The journey through the Christmas season is now but a distant memory and we are almost on the threshold of yet another journey which beckons us to seek out and come face to face with our own reality. The season of Lent urges us to pierce the mists that have prevented a clear vision of the way ahead and once more aim for the ‘high places’ towering above.
In the words of St. John Paul 11, the season of Lent is not just a ‘reminder’ of who we are and who we are called to be but a ‘continual summons’ to be the best we can. Are we like ‘much afraid’ – faltering and hesitant, holding back as we gaze into the purple mists of prayer and penance? Henry Miller writes that ‘ones destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things’ of allowing once and for all the swirling mists that cloud our vision to clear and dispel so that we can see with new eyes.
Lent is the acceptable time of challenge and opportunity – a time to come face to face with the truth of who we are and where we are. We are ‘summoned’ to cast aside everything that holds us back and to forge ahead to those ‘High Places’ which perhaps we have lost sight of. This is transformation. This is a reawakening. Whether it involves breaking an old habit or taking on a ‘holy’ habit, this sacred Lenten space urges us, in the Spirit, to do something that empties us of ourselves so that we can journey unhindered onwards and upwards through the misty veil to see the cosmos others, ourselves and our life in God in a new way.
The ‘High places are there towering above you and be quite sure that whatever happens, I mean to bring you up there, exactly as I promised.”
Thus speaks the God of mercy and compassion to whom this year is dedicated. It is only when we have truly experienced our own frailty and weakness and understand how easy it is to be swallowed up in the mists of life – when we have been lifted up and embraced by the mercy and love of God, only then can we become channels of mercy, compassion and forgiveness for others.
Sr. Louise Sheilds, RNDM