let the sunshine in

There's more than meets the eye in this whole suffering thing.
The prospect of suffering has always been among the most confounding questions man has had to confront in his lifetime. From time to time it helps to put the whole question in the context of the eternal bliss God has planned for us from the beginning. God didn't make us to be miserable, he made us to be happy. And as long as he has anything to do with it, he's going to get his way.
Jesus just drops the bomb on Peter, James, John and the gang, that he will be taken out and killed and rise on the third day. They fail to grasp the meaning—how could they—of rising on the third day. So all they hear is that he's going to be killed. Naturally they're saddened and revolt. But Jesus nails them for their lack of perspective. "You're thinking not as God does, but as men do."
It's still all too much for them so six days later he takes three of them and proceeds to blow their mind with his Transfiguration on the mountain. Saying, effectively, "Next time I tell you that they're going to kill me and I'm going to rise, remember the mountain." Or, "I've got everything under control."
We've got to remember this when we encounter the confounding challenge of suffering in our life. Yes, "life's tough and then you die." But why has that cliche always ended there? There's more. Life's tough, then you die, then you rise from the dead never to die again, forever having conquered sin and death, free from what ails our poor, weak flesh this side of the grave.
Jesus wants his guys to be strong in the face of suffering so he gives them the vision of the Transfiguration.
He wants us to get strong, too. So, during our observance of Lent, our lenten penances draw us closer to that glory which will never end.

[image by Irish artist, Jim Gola]