Let us be caught up like Peter to behold the divine vision, and to be transfigured by that glorious Transfiguration. ~ Anastasius of Sinai
This was one of several tweets which greeted me this morning, feast of the Transfiguration. And what caught my attention, so that I remembered it as the others faded away, were those first few words: Let us be caught up... instantly reminding me of a sentence in our Constitutions:
Caught up as we are in the desires of His Heart,
we want people to grow in dignity, as human beings
and as children of God.
To be caught up in or by something is to be captivated or seized by it, often to the exclusion of other things. How often have we become so 'caught up' in an activity that we lose track of the time, or fail to notice or hear something else? This is Peter, caught up and longing to remain with this resplendent vision of radiant glory, just as anyone would love to be 'caught up' and remain in prayer, in God - rapt, focused, silent, still; beholding and being beheld.
But it strikes me that being 'caught up' in the desires of Jesus' Heart has a very different effect. The Heart of Jesus draws us to him in order to open us to the pain and the needs of our world: we are caught up, not in a vision or in signs of glory, or even in uninterrupted communion, but in reality and need, in God's presence at the heart of our world, and God's dream and desire for each one of us. To be 'caught up' in the desires of Jesus' Heart is to be impelled - to love the unloved, to bring hope and tenderness, to act with justice and passion... to respond as he would want to respond.
This has to be what being a contemplative in action is all about: to be so utterly caught up in this Love and Light that we can only be caught up too in the desires of his Heart, and are thus impelled to leave the mountain and go out, beyond ourselves, transformed and fired by the certainty of the Love which has filled us.
May it be so for me, and for all of us...
Caught up as we are in the desires of His Heart,
we want people to grow in dignity, as human beings
and as children of God.
To be caught up in or by something is to be captivated or seized by it, often to the exclusion of other things. How often have we become so 'caught up' in an activity that we lose track of the time, or fail to notice or hear something else? This is Peter, caught up and longing to remain with this resplendent vision of radiant glory, just as anyone would love to be 'caught up' and remain in prayer, in God - rapt, focused, silent, still; beholding and being beheld.
But it strikes me that being 'caught up' in the desires of Jesus' Heart has a very different effect. The Heart of Jesus draws us to him in order to open us to the pain and the needs of our world: we are caught up, not in a vision or in signs of glory, or even in uninterrupted communion, but in reality and need, in God's presence at the heart of our world, and God's dream and desire for each one of us. To be 'caught up' in the desires of Jesus' Heart is to be impelled - to love the unloved, to bring hope and tenderness, to act with justice and passion... to respond as he would want to respond.
This has to be what being a contemplative in action is all about: to be so utterly caught up in this Love and Light that we can only be caught up too in the desires of his Heart, and are thus impelled to leave the mountain and go out, beyond ourselves, transformed and fired by the certainty of the Love which has filled us.
May it be so for me, and for all of us...
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