Today we celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration. Jesus takes Peter, James and John with Him as
He goes up to a mountain top to pray. In
prayer he encounters Moses and Elijah and the three of them speak about His
upcoming death and resurrection, His exodus from his earthly sojourn, whereby
we are freed from the slavery to sin.
Jesus is transfigured in that encounter. His face and clothes glow in
ways beyond anything here on earth. The glory of the Godhead shines through His
whole being. The three disciples are
frightened when they hear the voice of the Father, saying: “This is my beloved
Son in whom I am well-pleased. Listen to Him.”
Peter pipes us and says to Jesus: “Let us build three tents here: one
for you, one for Elijah and one for Moses.”
Peter has no idea what he is talking about. Jesus leaves the mountain top with the three apostles and goes on to
Jerusalem to complete His mission here on earth, to return to His Father in
heaven and send us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to accompany us and to open
our eyes and hearts to the meaning of His Words and Mission, and ours!
What would I do if I had been Peter, James or John? How
would I have reacted? Would I, too, have wanted to stay on the mountaintop? We
may go apart from time to time but always need to return to where life really
happens. We do not live everyday life on mountaintops, on places removed from the
vicissitudes of life, life’s painful realities, suffering and death
itself. We live, for the most part, as
Jesus did, in the valleys where jealousies can lead to treacherous ends, where
neighbor rises us against neighbor, where individuals are sacrificed for
another’s perceived gains. It goes on to
this very day, not only in Jesus’ time.
To live in peace in the midst of this world’s turmoil, we
need to maintain a relationship with God the Father as Jesus did. We need to
come to Jesus, as Jesus went to His Father, sit at Jesus’ feet often and learn from Him. “I am the Way,
the Truth and the Life,” Jesus tells us
in John 14:6. Let our “mountaintop” be
the times we listen to Jesus in the
midst of life’s difficult and rewarding moments, talking to Him as He talked
with Elijah and Moses and found the strength to go on to “Jerusalem”!
