In Genesis Chapter 22, God Tempts Abraham with killing his firstborn & in Mark Chapter 9, Verses: 2-10 Jesus takes Peter, James and John into a high mountain where Elijah and Moses appear to talk with Jesus.
One of the great gifts of life is our imagination. Science looks for cures, entertainment uses imaginary worlds, tales of sagas of another reality such as the Harry Potter series. We are able to use human imagination to take what’s in this world and make it another. Jesus wants us to make use of our imagination about what God is doing. He asks his apostles to go to the mountain with him to look at what God is doing. When we try to understand what God is doing, this allows our imagination to have a new perspective on God and with each other. Abraham is taken up to a mountain where he is asked to sacrifice his beloved son but before he was about to, his hand is stayed. He lived in a world in a time where sacrificing the first born was required in the pagan world. That same scene occurs in the gospel, but instead of giving our beloved son, God gave us his son. There was a mechanic, and one day his son was helping him at home, and suddenly the jack slipped from under the car and it fell onto the son, killing him. His father was devasted, and at the funeral, the father said, “It would of been easier for me to die.” This is a reminder to us that sacrifice, that sense of pain and suffering, that is God’s suffering. He gave his only son for us. What are we willing to give for our salvation? It’s not by chance that Jesus chose them to go with him, they were rivals. Peter was just told that he was going to get the keys, and James and John went with their mother asking for a place of honor among the Lord. Fantasies often give us that sense of rivalry, but for God its different. People who have died, their family members gather at the funeral together, some not speaking to one another before but at the funeral they were warm to one another. They knew they were divided, but they all shared the same sense of loss, that is what Peter, James and John share together, the sense of losing him Jesus. They also gather with the lord in the garden of Gethsemane. In terms of their mortality, this binds them together. We have rivalries with each other, and we get to the point where we don’t trust each other. The gospel calls us to remember our shared relationship and vulnerabilities. Something to keep in mind, it’s those kinds of rivalries that lead to gossip and conspiracy. Lent is a time for conversion, a time for change and to have our imagination broadened, not in the fantasy world but in the real world and let’s see what God is doing. We are all called to share in each other sufferings because of our shared mortality and vulnerability.
Kings Chapter 19 Verses 9-12 – God reveals to Elijah he is present in a still, small voice.
There are many clamoring voices in our world today, what voice are we listening to? Is it Christs’ voice? His voice is the only one that leads to life that is eternal, to heaven, to our sure harbor, that which our hearts long for. This is the journey of lent, listening to the voice of Christ. The mystery of the transfiguration on Mount Tabor is not meant to be looked at as once occurring or some 2000 year ago past time that has already occurred, but as a reality that happens now. In the Christian life, we can experience this transfiguration in and through most of all sacraments. During the sacraments we are transfigured, we take on more of Christ like attributes. According to gospel above, this took place in the context of prayer when Jesus took them to go pray and here, we are given a first-hand experience seeing the son of God pray. We know what it looks like for us when we pray, but can you imagine what it was like to hear and see the son of God praying? And speaking to arguably the two of the most important prophets in the Bible. (laughs). Peter, James and John would have experienced both. Jesus choosing a mountain for his manifestation of divine glory was no coincidence, neither was the fact that Jesus conversed with arguably the two most important prophets in the Bible (they both parted waters) all this while God was present. On Mount Horeb, Moses had what’s called a theophany, or a sudden, visible manifestation of God. The Lord God manifested as an unconsumed burning bush, and also at Mount Sinai when Moses received the ten commandments and God showed him his “back parts.” Several centuries after Moses, Elijah traveled 40 days and 40 nights to Mount Horeb and upon arriving, he complained about the unfaithfulness of Israel to the covenants and commandments of God. It was here, when Elijah received the revelation that God is present in a still, small voice. Remember how this was manifested to Elijah. God told him to go out and stand on the mountain, that he was about to pass by, then suddenly there was a great wind that it shook the mountains, then an earthquake, then a fire, then – a still small voice. Elijah is present when God the father says, “This is my beloved son; hear him.” God communicated to Elijah that he is not fire nor an earthquake, but silence.
The reason Jesus went up into the mountains alone or with only a few of his disciples, was to escape the midst of clamor that he surrounded him, his fame, if you will. Jesus needed silence like we all do to pray meaningfully, he needed to escape, so he sought the seclusion of the mountain to be with God. It is not necessary to go up a mountain to pray, surely that helps. There is a real sense of feeling/being small. This “mountain” can be found within us if we go deep and ask the Holy Spirit to help us find that place. The eternal son came into this world so that we ourselves may be transfigured, not solely for the lord’s sake but for ours as well. He unveils his glory at the transfiguration for you, not just for him for he is God he knows who he is. We need to be shown and taught who the son of man is. After Peter, James and John experience this, what was next? The passion, the suffering and death of the Lord. Jesus knew how weak the faith of the apostles was, and he knows how weak our faith is as well, sometimes very weak. So too is our hope in the lord, and the charity we should be practicing is not quite there yet. That is why we need the sacraments, to increase faith, to increase charity. Jesus gives us a glimpse of his divine nature, which was baffling to his disciples who were sore afraid. Perhaps we might want to prolong the vision they were beholding. Saint Augustine said, “The Christian has only one true home, and that’s Christ.” God the son literally lived and dwelled among; he became one of us in everything but sin. Are we content with Christ being our home? Is Christ apart of everything in my life? Is Christ enough? Moses and Elijah were conversing with Jesus, not listening but talking with him so what did this look like? Everything Moses and Elijah lived for and did in their lives was ultimately pointing to the revelation of Jesus, so try to imagine within your own prayer, the fulfilment of every desire was literally right there in front of the disciples. I think we all would want to be a part of this sit down to ask, “Why this and why that.” Lent is a time of conversing with the lord and communicating with the lord means that first we need t listen and be attentive; conversing and listening go hand in hand. A wise priest said that 75% of every good conversation is listening and how difficult is that, right? Just being content with listening and being silent in our prayer or during a conversation with a friend, family member or co-worker. There is giving and receiving. Moses and Elijah can teach us our disposition to the lord is receptivity, and not so much about what we have to give - that’s important but prayer is more about receptivity - being humble and docile before the lord, teachable, not being so set in our ways, not stubborn but malleable like iron in the fire being forged, iron is harder than steel it can’t be bent, unless you put that metal into the fire, you won’t be able to pound it out and shape it to form and that’s the way coming before the lord in prayer should be, the more we get closer to God closer we get to the fire. “What is the lord asking of me in this conversation?”
Sometimes the temptation is to be the one always speaking in a conversation – religious meetings, married life - in the workplace with friends, always the one who gets the last word. But are we we listening? That is what Lent is about - listening to those around us. This might be something to bring up the next time you go to the sacrament of penance, or at home. That I don’t listen enough, that I’m the one always wanting to do the talking, but most of all with god himself in confession, always bringing my own petitions - but do we give God adoration praise and thanksgiving before we start to go down the laundry list of things for in our lives? You might be surprised what the lord might do with that. He gives us the grace to work on these things, like a divine remedy. When we are sick, we go to the doctor, we tell them where it hurts and hopefully, they give us a remedy, if it doesn’t work the first time sometimes, we need to go back. I pray that we bring before the lord our faults and receive healing. Helps us God, to bring a bigger change and increase in the life of Christ. The sacraments bring about our transfiguration. Meditate at home upon your own personal transfiguration, and next time you are at mass and are about to receive holy communion, ask yourself, “What is on my heart?” What are you thinking about after you receive communion, when you go back to your pew and as you kneel and now that you have the lord god’s blessed sacrament in you, are you thinking about all the things you are going to be doing during the week? Or are you resting in Christ and not thinking about the things you have to do later?