Monday, February 19, 2018

JESUS' TRANSFIGURATION


“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, LISTEN TO HIM.”

February 25th, 2018: Second Sunday in Lent, Year B.  Mark 9:2-10.

AIM:  To explain the meaning of Jesus’ transfiguration and show the importance of listening for Jesus’ words in everyday life.

 

          The event we have just heard about in the gospel, Jesus’ transfiguration, is mysterious. Like Jesus’ resurrection, which is not described in any of the gospels, the transfiguration stands on the threshold between this world and the next.  Mark’s account is rich in symbols.

          The unnamed “high mountain” is the first symbol. In the thought-world of the Bible, mountains symbolize remoteness from ordinary worldly affairs, and nearness to God. Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Elijah, who appears with Moses on the mountain of Jesus’ transfiguration, experienced the climax of his career on Mount Carmel, in his contest with the prophets of the false god Baal. (1 Kings 18) Jesus went up a mountain to call his twelve apostles. (Mark 3:13)  John’s gospel says that he withdrew to a mountain to pray following the feeding of the great crowd in the wilderness. (6:15)     

          The dazzling whiteness of Jesus’ clothes symbolizes God’s glory, which (as God told Moses) no mortal can look on and live (Ex. 33:20). We find this same symbolism in the Book of Revelation, which says that in heaven the blessed will be “robed in white” (Rev. 3:4f).

          Moses and Elijah, the two greatest heroes of Jesus’ people, symbolize the special relationship of the Jewish people with God. Together they point to Jesus as the one who fulfils all his people’s hopes and expectations. Jesus is greater than either of them, greater even than Moses and Elijah together.

          Peter is so fascinated by this wonderful experience that he wants to prolong it. His proposal, to erect three tents, is reminiscent of the Jewish Feast of Tents, a joyful autumn celebration that recalled the time when God’s people lived in tents during their desert wanderings. That feast also looked forward to the joy of the end-time, when God would visit his people and complete the blessings promised in the covenant he had made with Moses in the wilderness.

          Peter’s suggestion about the three tents is immediately followed by the descent of the cloud. That is the most striking symbol of all. Repeatedly in Scripture a cloud is a sign of God’s presence. There was a cloud on Mount Sinai when Moses received the Ten Commandments (Ex. 24:13). A cloud received the risen Lord into heaven at Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:9). Now the voice from the cloud speaks the same words uttered at Jesus’ baptism: “This is my beloved Son.”  The concluding words, “Listen to him,” recall a prophecy uttered long before by Moses: “The Lord God will raise up a prophet from among you like myself, and you shall listen to him” (Deut.18:15).

          All these biblical symbols suggest in Jesus’ transfiguration meanings which are impossible to convey in a literal description. Like the resurrection, the trans-figuration is a mystery because, though it happened in time, it gives a glimpse into a world beyond time. For a brief moment, there on the mountain, the veil between time and eternity, between earth and heaven, was lifted. Jesus’ three friends catch a momentary glimpse of the invisible, spiritual world of God. And the concluding words spoken from the cloud – “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him” – express the significance of this mystery for Jesus’ friends: not only for the three present there on the mountain, but for all the friends of Jesus, ourselves included. 

           We, the friends and followers of Jesus Christ, are the company of those who listen to his words. Jesus does not grant to us, any more than he granted Peter, James, and John, the continuous vision of his glory. We live not on the mountain-top of great spiritual experiences, but in the valley of life’s ordinary duties. There we do not look for dazzling visions from beyond. Instead we listen for God’s voice.

          Perhaps you’re wondering: Does God really speak to us? When? How? God is speaking to us all the time. He speaks in his Holy Word, in the teaching of his Church, through the circumstances of daily life, in the promptings of conscience, and in the needs of those whom we encounter along life’s way. To hear God speaking to us, however, we must learn to be silent. When I entered seminary 70 years ago next month, we new students were given a little book called “Principles”: pithy sayings to guide our lives. One was about silence. It went like this: “The conversation of the brethren should help and cheer us, but God’s voice speaks most often in silence. Keep some part of every day free from all noise and the voices of men, for human distraction and craving for it hinder divine peace.”

          Some four years ago a young man named Johnny, who had been received into the Church here in our parish the previous Easter, returned from a private retreat with the Brothers of St. John in the Joliet/Illinois diocese. He was just glowing from the experience. “I loved the silence,” he told me.

Johnny,” I replied, “if you loved the silence, you are light years ahead of 95% of your peers, who wear electronic ear plugs all day and half the night, so that they won’t have to endure a single minute of silence.” Nine months later Johnny joined the Brothers of St. John as a novice. I saw him a year thereafter, when he was on his way to a visit with his parents in Birmingham/Alabama. He was radiantly happy with the choice he had made for his life -- a choice that began when he discovered the beauty of silence.   
You too can experience that beauty. To do so, turn off the radio and the TV and create times of silence in your day. Turn inward and say: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” Each time you do that, you are heeding the words the Lord God spoke on the mountain of Jesus’ transfiguration two thousand years ago:

            “This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him.”

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