The Transfiguration
Second Sunday of Lent
March 16, 2014
Reading I: Genesis 12:1-4a
Responsorial Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
Reading II: 2 Timothy 1:8b-10
Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9
Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother,
and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them;
his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here.
If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
While he was still speaking, behold,
a bright cloud cast a shadow over them,
then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased;
listen to him.”
When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate
and were very much afraid.
But Jesus came and touched them, saying,
“Rise, and do not be afraid.”
And when the disciples raised their eyes,
they saw no one else but Jesus alone.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
Jesus charged them,
“Do not tell the vision to anyone
until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Lent can be thought of as an annual audit of our progress along the path from metanoia to the final goal. Perhaps setting the amazing story of the transfiguration on this second Sunday is intended as an encouragement: the goal is to be caught up in the "glory" of his victorious resurrection. The transfiguration, however, is more than just a flash of glory breaking through for a moment.
It is a formal confirmation of Jesus as qualified teacher, as authentic prophet, as spokesman for the Most High. “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.” At the time the disciples badly needed this confirmation.
Only a couple of weeks earlier they had been up at Caesaria Philippi at the foot of Mt Hermon. Jesus had wanted to know what the people were saying about him, and then he asked them what they were thinking. This put them on the back foot. They had heard his teaching and been fascinated by his integrity; they had seen the signs he worked and been impressed, for these seemed to confirm that God was with him. But they had not, to this point, felt the need to make a choice to believe in him totally, with total commitment – not until he asked: What about you? Who do you say that I am?
It's hardly realistic to imagine that this conversation was just the brief exchange sketched in the gospel account. It may well have lasted all day, sharing ideas, coming to grips with the issue, finally making the definitive choice expressed in Peter's words: "You are the Messiah, the holy one of God. " Saying it was one thing. Actually being convinced of it was something else. Which brings us to this day when Jesus took the three leaders up the mountain...
The question often comes up on Catholica: What do you think of Jesus of Nazareth? There is an amazing diversty of opinions amongst us ranging from formal affirmations of faith in the "Incarnate Son of God" to seeing him as a myth without historical foundation! The value of this is in the sharp edge it gives to our attempt to draw something from the transfiguration that the three apostle witnessed.
*****
To keep it simple, I would suggest that it doesn't matter whether this event really happened, or is just a story devised to make a point. The essential questions are the same: What does it mean? Why is it included in the gospel narrative? What is it teaching?
And he was transfigured before them, shining, dazzling white: John says at the beginning of his poetic gospel, “we have seen his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten son, full of grace and truth.” 'Glory' sums it up in a single word, without comparisons, leaving it to us to wonder what is the 'glory' of the Lord. Perhaps we don't think about it much because it is stunning.
We are familiar with the main symbols: the mountain, recalling the mountain Abraham climbed with Isaac on that terrible day (Gen 22), and Mt Sinai that Moses climbed many times to meet with the Lord and even to see the face of God (Ex 19), and where Elijah heard the voice of God in the soft breeze (1 Kg 19), and the mount on which Jesus outlined his program, and the mount called Golgotha on which he gave his life. This one is designated only as a 'high mountain' which they climbed 'to be apart' and 'to pray'.
Moses, who the Lord first spoke to from the heart of the fire; who was enveloped by the cloud on the mountain; who was given the task of transforming the mob of refugees into a people organised by law; who presided over the covenant ritual, sealed with the blood of life.
Elijah represents the prophets, and the tradition of personal inspiration among those who listen in their hearts, who hear the word of God and keep it; the tradition that tirelessly calls for metanoia ; the tradition of which John the Baptist was the latest and greatest representative, having so recently given his life in witness to the truth when he told King Herod he was doing wrong.
Peter, wanting the experience to go on forever, babbling away about setting up three tents, 'for he wist not what to say for they were sore afraid', as the King James version has it of the extra phrases in Mark's account. Luke says that they were afraid “as they entered the cloud”. No need to explain to these men the significance of the cloud or remind them of the cloud that covered Sinai or the cloud that filled the holy place in the temple so that no human could go in there. No need to explain the voice they heard in the cloud: This is my son, my well-loved son. He has my full approval. Listen to him, for he speaks with my authority.
*****
"He has my approval. Listen to him, for he speaks with my authority!" This is why Jesus led them up the mountain, that they could face their doubts and uncertainty and receive confirmation of their hesitant faith. As said above, it makes no difference whether it actually happened in this form or that this is only a made-up story. The teaching point is the same: this Jesus is the one who brings to fulfillment the law of Moses and the expectations of the prophets. He is confirmed by the Most High.
Even if we should choose to see the story only as an illustration of the conviction Peter, James and John arrived at slowly in their silent reflections on all they had heard and seen, it still speaks of a firm conviction, and it is on this conviction of theirs that our faith rests. "Of all this we are witnesses," Peter told the assembled crowd on that first Pentecost. John begins his account saying: "The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we have seen his glory..." And his gospel closes with the affirmation: "It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true."
Likewise the first letter of John begins: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life — for the life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us — what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
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Not only was this the confirmation they felt they needed. This experience forges of them one more link in that cloudy chain of those who have come face to face with God and heard his voice. It is at this point that Matthew says they were 'sore afraid'. Something of an understatement.
Suddenly it is all over, for the touch of God is powerful and quick as lightning, not lasting through extended time. Nor are we to dwell on the experience in an attempt to prolong the moment. So is every believer convinced at some crucial moment in life of the authority of God vested in this man Jesus who is raised up to be called The Christ'. It is this personal conviction that makes of every believer an apostle capable of being a witness for someone else to learn faith from.
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Coming down from the mountain we hear the final component of the story: 'He charged them not to tell anyone about this until the son of man is risen from the dead.' This is not only to avoid a rush of hysterical enthusiasm in the crowd, but to teach that we can only understand Jesus when we look at his life through its ending, seeing him standing before the civil authority without a word in self-defense, giving himself up in witness to the truth.
In this he sets the standard by which we can make a better world, by which humankind can even influence the evolution of the cosmos. By freely choosing to bear witness to the truth, we not only lead the development of intelligence in the world, but we contribute that unique quality of love. Nothing is more important than this. No pain or sacrifice counts, compared with our commitment to affirm and establish the truth as the light that conquers the dark. This is born out in the experience of those who have spoken up for the truth in the present scandal of sexual abuse that has been corrupting the church and society. With corruption endemic on every side there is no greater need than for honest people to have the courage to speak out. The transformation prefigured on Mt Thabor promises that every person will live in the light of truth, illuminating the evolving cosmos with divine light.
Jesus is teacher, yes, but not just in the manner of philosophers and sages. He teaches a way that starts with metanoia, a total turn-around to look towards the perennial call to be true, moves through the moral imperatives of simplicity and integrity, to reach in the end the personal engagement with the truth to which one must give witness no matter it cost your life. There is no greater love.
This is the witness Jesus gives in going forward according to the Father's will, for truth demands nothing less! This is the One approved by the Father, confirmed and anointed by the Spirit, whose way of total self-giving is for everyone the only way for us to be what we are destined to be, 'doing the truth in love'.