… the hand of the Lord rests on this mountain

(Isaiah 25:10)

In early August I climbed the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps, Gran Sasso (‘Big Rock'), something I've wanted to do for some time. I have to confess, it was a struggle. The rest of Italy was bathed in sunshine, but on the mountain it was cold, windy and foggy. 

Mountains figure a lot in the Bible. They are places of encounter with God: Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai, Mount Tabor. Today, Isaiah's vision of a heavenly realm is of a mountain where every conceivable need will be fulfilled. The feeding of the four thousand in Matthew's gospel takes place in ‘the hills', where Jesus had gone to pray. Jesus will die on ‘Mount' Calvary.

Mountains are a metaphor of the spiritual life: the effort, the striving for a goal, the discouragement on the way, the obscurity of the path, the loss of vision near the top, the exhilaration of achievement. And the descent, back to our everyday lives; but somehow changed because of the experience of being on the mountain, just like Peter, James and John after the Transfiguration.

Advent is a kind of mountain, too, a journey upwards towards a God who will reveal himself in a totally unexpected way, as a child. On the way, the goal can seem a long way off, so we ask God to ‘guide us along the right path', as in the words of today's responsorial psalm. We may encounter a ‘valley of darkness', but we are encouraged not to fear. Someone has taken us by the hand and will guide us: ‘you are there with your crook and your staff'.

When George Mallory, the mountaineer, was asked why he wanted to climb Everest, he said famously, ‘because it's there'. The same can be said of the spiritual life. Even those who claim not to be religious are still, for the most part, seekers. Most are in search of meaning, even if they aren't sure what it is they are looking for; but they know there is something ‘there'. Advent is a time to go searching for it, on the mountain.

(Mallory died on Mt Everest in 1924. During a break in the clouds, he was spotted with his colleague heading for the top. They were never seen alive again. Did they reach the summit? It remains a mystery.)

***

A meditation written by Fr Paul Graham O.S.A., Assistant General on the Augustinian Council for Northern Europe, including the Provinces of Ireland, England & Scotland, Poland, Germany, Austria and Slovakia

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