The Touch of God"

Today's Mass Readings

Both Abraham in the first reading and Peter, James and John in the Gospel have a powerful experience of God. The experience is so powerful that they are willing to make radial changes. Abraham is asked to uproot his whole family and move to a place he has no idea of. Peter, James and John are willing to set up tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah – (they do not even think about themselves) and remain on the top of the mountain. For them to such life-changing decisions, something significant must have happened. God-experience is the most crucial experience that a human being can have. It led Abraham to leave his nation and become the father in faith; It led Moses from the dessert to Pharaoh; it led Isaiah from being a shepherd to being a prophet; it led Mary to say yes to God; it led Jesus to offer his life as a ransom for a sinful human kind; it led St. St. Thomas to India; it led Peter to martyrdom; it led Mother Teresa to give her life to the poor. As I said earlier, God-experience grips a person, it challenges a person, it transforms a person and it leads the person to a total surrender of his or her life to God.

Life without a God-experience is like food without salt, chocolate chip cookie without chocolate chips, ice-cream without cream, soda without fizz, pizza without cheese. God- experience is the salt, chocolate, cream, fizz, cheese, in other words, the very meaning of our existence. How we can have a God-Experience? The disciples had to climb the mountain with Jesus. Are we prepared to climb the mountain with Jesus? God-experience is God’s free gift, but we must climb the top of the mountain.

The mountain is the mountain of prayer. This lent, our challenge is to find quiet time on top of the mountain. We must genuinely seek the touch of God.

- Fr. Satish Joseph