The Radiance ....

A LENTEN PILGRIMAGE

Rev. Fr. K M George 

It is a delightful sight to see the morning rays of the sun fall on tender leaves on tree tops. The semi-transparent leaves appear radiant. But the more mature leaves are apparently less capable of letting the light through. The older they get, the harder to be penetrated by light!  

The Lenten prayers refer again and again to the luminous face of Moses. As narrated in the book of Exodus, Moses went up on the Mount Sinai to the presence of God. 

He received the Ten Commandments from God for the people of Israel though the Scripture says that on Mount Sinai Moses entered into thick darkness. He probably did not see anything in our usual sense of sight.

When he came out of darkness to the people below they found that the face of Moses was brightened up. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. (Exodus 34:29-30)

It was not ordinary light that illuminated the countenance of Moses, but the reflection of the glory of God on the face of the one who went through a period of intense fasting focused on the desire to see God.

Lent is a Journey of forty days like that of Moses, when our whole being is focused on receiving the light from God. It is not simply the end point of the journey that is important but also the way and the walk.

Suppose you lost the way at night in a deserted place. Then you see a small flickering light at a great distance. You begin to take steps forward in great hope. The more you approach the light the more enlightened your face becomes. In desperate darkness immediately around you, you never take off your eyes from the distant light.For Moses the enlightenment was happening gradually. He was on the way to the presence of God. In our case too climbing the mountain slope in the Lent period is a gradual process of approaching the unapproachable Light. It is hard and painful but it will certainly brighten up our face and heart. 

We have testimonies for saintly persons like Catholicos Baselios Geevarghese II of the Malankara Orthodox Church and Seraphim of Sarov of the Russian Orthodox Church whose faces became radiant even for fleeting moments, according to contemporary witnesses.

But most of such experiences happening to saintly persons are hidden to public knowledge. Even Christ's own transfiguration was not open to all the twelve apostles, but only to three chosen ones, even that under strict order of secrecy.