The Transfiguration

The Transfiguration

This Sunday's gospel was the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13).  I have always loved that story for two reasons.  First, I like to imagine what it would have been like to be Peter, James or John.  They had seen Jesus as a teacher and a healer but always also as a human being.  On the mountaintop, they saw Him as God.  What would that have been like?  

In the Old Testament, Moses went to the mountain to be with God and when he came down, his face was so radiant that he had to hide it from the people.  In Greek mythology, there was a god (I can't remember which) who was in a relationship with a woman who asked him many times to let her see him in his godly form.  When he finally gave in to her, she was incinerated on the spot (I'll never forget my 11th grade English teacher, Sister Elizabeth, talking about this. She looked over her notes at us and said, "I guess you could say she made an ash of herself").  

The apostles' hearts must have been burning in their chests when they saw Jesus.  It must have been a taste of what heaven will be like.  I've had some experiences in my life that are a bit like that.  I call them "mountaintop" experiences.  They are times when, for an instant, my soul is at rest in the Lord in the way I imagine it will be in heaven.  Most of the time though, my walk with God is about faith without feelings.  I know intellectually what I need to do to obey and serve Him and I struggle to do it.  I try to appreciate the gift I am given every time I go to Mass and receive Jesus--human and divine--in the eucharist.  It is not always an emotional experience but every time I take communion, I am as close to Jesus as I will ever be this side of the grave.

The second reason I love the story of the transfiguration is that Peter responds in his typically human way.  He wants to build tents and stay awhile with Jesus, Moses and Elijah.  I can totally relate to that.  I want to be happy and satisfied as much as the next person.  The suffering of the cross turns me off as much as it did the apostles when Jesus had to tell Peter, "get behind me Satan".  We're in the season to embrace that suffering though.  This is our opportunity to walk the way of Calvary with our Lord.  If we are brave enough, we can even ask for more hardship and unite it to Jesus' cross.  I long to love Him enough to do that.