Up and Down and Up Again

We’re moving into the liturgical seasons of great contrasts: Epiphany to Lent to Easter. Up and down and up again. Our own seasons rarely match up with liturgical season and yet our lives eventually do as we follow Jesus. We find inspiration and desolation and consolation. We feel strong, we feel weak, we feel reinvigorated. We cultivate spirituality because it’s enjoyable sometimes, we cling to it because life terrifies us sometimes, we simple rest in God sometimes because gradually we come to trust God almost no matter what. It helps to pay attention to these seasons year after year after year.
It’s early in Epiphany now. We’re climbing, reaching the highest point, the mountain of Transfiguration, the week before Ash Wednesday. Then we descend slowly until we reach almost to hell on Good Friday. Suddenly Jesus speaks to us again on Easter in a closed room or a cemetery garden and we can hardly believe we’ve lived to see such Life. It’s quite a journey.