How good it is to be here

Lent is officially over today, but this is the first chance I've had to write about last week's Gospel reading, the Transfiguration, when Jesus revealed his divinity to Peter, James and John. Peter, the Apostle who so often put his foot into his mouth despite his good intentions, said upon seeing Jesus as divine, alongside Moses and Elijah, "Master, it is good to be here."
He wanted to erect shelters and stay put because it was such a profound and compelling moment.
I was standing in the choir loft while that Gospel reading was proclaimed in church, because we rang handbells at that Mass. I felt a glimmer of understanding and empathy with Peter at that moment, looking down on the congregation and out at the church structure that is so familiar to me. It was indeed good to be there at that moment, I was in my comfort zone and feeling very blessed to be a part of it all -- the liturgy, the parish and the Catholic Church.
But as the reading points out to us, we cannot simply remain safe and secure in our comfort zones, all of us. We come together as church, as a faith community, and we sing and pray and proclaim and listen. We contemplate and we respond. And it's the response part that compels us to stand up at the end of Mass, and upon hearing "The Mass is ended. Go forth in peace to serve God and one another," to respond, "Thanks be to God." And then, it's over. We must go forth into the world and live our lives. We cannot stay where we feel good. We are nourished by our liturgy, our public prayer and our fellowship with each other, but that nourishment is not for our personal benefit alone. It is to give us the strength we need to go out and be an example to the rest of the world, to lead us each week to a slightly better understanding of what God calls us to do and become. We can't keep it to ourselves, and if we just sit safe and secure in the pews and listen, absorbing the lessons and the good feelings, we accomplish nothing and we do not ourselves grow in faith.
And so we look forward to next time, but ideally come away each Sunday with a little something more than we had when we walked in an hour before.