It is Good, Lord, to be Here

It is the vocation of every baptized Christian to “Go … and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), to tell everyone about Jesus and the salvation he brings to all who believe in him (see John 3:16). However, how can we preach what we have not heard (see Romans 10:14-15)? Indeed, how can we tell everyone what we have seen and heard (see Acts 4:20) unless it is true that we have experienced the person about whom we dare to speak: Jesus?

Without exception, all the Apostles faced the wrath of a world that was threatened by the message of Christ. Peter was crucified in Rome (c. AD 64), James was beheaded in Jerusalem (AD 44; see Acts 12:1-2), John, his brother, was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil which failed to kill him, so he was exiled to Patmos (Revelation 1:9), Paul was beheaded in Rome (c.  AD 67;). Before their eventual deaths, though, they had endured many “martyrdoms” for their nerve to speak of a man of infinitely greater power than Caesar, of a crucified Jew who had apparently risen from the dead! One time, Paul had to flee from a city hidden in a basket (Acts 9:24-25, 2 Corinthians 11:32-33), and at another he was stoned to the point that his persecutors thought him dead (Acts 14:19-20)!

How did they keep preaching, risking their lives, enduring hardships—how did they keep going despite a million challenges and reasons to give up?

The answer is that they had a living, real, intense and ongoing encounter with Jesus, their Master. To them, Jesus was not just a good idea they occasionally heard about; he was someone with whom they always communed.

Peter, James and John had walked with Jesus. They had heard him speak; they had seen him work miracles, eat, sleep and walk. They had touched him, and he had touched them. And, in this Sunday’s Gospel account (Matthew 17:1-9), they saw him transfigured. They saw his glory. Years later, after he had ascended into heaven, they could still remember his face, his voice, his words, and who he really was.

The Apostles knew who Jesus was.

Paul had been thrown off a horse by Jesus on his way to Damascus (see Acts 9:1-9). He remembered that encounter, that bright light, and that voice so well that it is recounted three times in the New Testament (Acts 9,22,26)! In his letters, we know that, despite his missionary work of constant travel, of his imprisonments and persecutions, he “always prayed” (see, for example Ephesians 1:15-23), he always spent time with Jesus. That is how he was able to find strength to trust when he suffered in various ways (see 2 Corinthians 11:16-33): when he was stoned, when he had to flee from persecution, when he was shipwrecked (Acts 27:39-44), when he was bound in chains, and when he finally freely gave his neck to his executioner.

One of the pillars of Lent is Prayer. Prayer is often defined as how we communicate with God. In any form of human communication, we know that the parties involved speak to each other in turn. It is how we build relationships with each other; it is how we know each other, how we eventually know the sound of our friend’s voice, and can even, at times, anticipate what they would say in a particular situation.

It is not different with Jesus, our God, who calls us “friends” (John 15:15). If it is indeed imperative for us to know him so as to speak about him to others, it is also necessary that we make a good, regular and consistent habit of praying.

The Church gives us a treasury of prayers. Above them all is the Mass, in which we have the opportunity to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist. There can be no greater form of communion with Jesus on earth! Perhaps, this Lent, we can, as far as this is possible, attend daily Mass. We can also make an extra effort to be more attentive at Mass, to participate more fully during the Mass, to prepare better for this encounter with a Eucharistic Fast and a good examination of conscience and act of contrition before Mass, to frequent Confession so as to always receive the Lord worthily and well.

Following and flowing from this is Adoration, where we spend some time with the Lord exposed or in the Tabernacle. Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is a form of prayer that has made many saints: St Carlo Acutis, St Pier Giorgio Frassati, St John Paul II, St Margaret Mary Alacoque, St Peter Julian Eymard,  St Teresa of Calcutta … In fact, one would be hard-pressed to name a single saint who didn’t have a great love for the Eucharist. As the days of Lent go by, we could perhaps decide to make a holy hour once a week, or like St Carlo Acutis, to always take some time to “say hello to Jesus” each time we pass by a Church with the Blessed Sacrament.

Another form of prayer is mental prayer, in which we converse with Our Lord in our own words. It is a practice of prayer encouraged by great saints like St Teresa of Avilá and St Josemaría Escrivá. In this form of prayer, we take some time, perhaps a quarter an hour, ten minutes, or even five minutes daily, to speak to the Lord in our own words, to tell him what is on our mind, our troubles, our joys, our plans … anything and everything! This is how we expose our hearts to God, to our Friend so that he can know us.

We need no wings to go in search of God, but have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon Him present within us (St Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection).

Mental is a heart-to-heart dialogue with God, in which the whole soul takes part; intelligence, imagination, memory and will are all involved. It is a meditation that helps to give supernatural value to our poor human life, with all its normal, everyday occurrences (St Josemaría Escrivá).

And then, very importantly, the practice of silence so as to hear what our Friend has to say in reply; and the reading of Holy Scripture, wherein we can know his voice.

Prayer helps us to form a concrete image, gradually, of who Jesus is—a real person, a real Friend, and yes, God-with-us! Only if we pray will we realise why, in the presence of the Transfigured Lord, Peter could only say, “Lord, it is good to be here…” (Matthew 17:4).

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