Friday March 25, 2011

Matthew 17:6-7

"When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, 'Rise, and do not be afraid.'"

I've already talked about what the Little Black Book chose to reflect on for today earlier in the week. Just as well in a way, because it's something different that appeals to me here.

It's amazing how many times I remember, how many stories, in which Jesus says "Rise" and then to let go of the fear or the illness or the sin that was weighing us down. Always, He is saying "Rise." Rise up. Stand up, walk and live. The awe of God can lay you flat - instead, stand up, walk and live. Sin can bring you down, reach up for God, then rise and sin no more.

Fear of God is healthy. It can make you try harder to be a better person. But that's what it should do. Not leave you lying prone on Mount Tabor for the rest of your life. You have to rise up, so that you can do with the voice from on high asked of you in the first place - "listen to Him." You have to stand up, walk down the mountain, and never stop rising higher and higher to meet God.

Because if we experienced heaven even incompletely on earth, we would all be changed people. But it would do us little good if we only fell prostrate and sobbed for the beauty and the love and the terror. We have to stand up, even in the presence of God, when He asks us to rise. We must stand and walk by His side. We must let Him raise us, not fall down in fear and awe. We must rise, because we have been commanded. More than for anything else (I think). He asks us to rise.

St. Catherine of Siena spent three years praying in a small room. Then she was asked to go out and move in the world. She said she would have been happy to stay there always, but for all the glory of God she exalted for three years on her knees, when God asked her to stand, to rise up, she did. And she went to the pope in Avignon, and she wrote to Church leaders. She rose and she wrote.

The experience of God is not meant to flatten us, to push us down into the awareness of our own unworthiness - although I'm sure it does that. It's meant to show us that we can rise. That we were meant to rise. That we are commanded to rise.

Your sins are forgiven. Stand up now, walk and live.

Rise, and do not be afraid.

Dear Lord, may I have the courage to stand for Your people and Your causes. May I be worthy of the trust You put in me, and may I have the strength to stand, walk, take up my cross, and live. May I always remember that You command me to rise and to stand. May I always have Your grace and blessing to help me do so. Thank You, for Your loving command.