Matthew 17:1-8: Transfigured
Thursday, March 28, 2019
In Mark’s version (9:2-8) and in Luke’s story (9:28-36) we hear again about the brilliance of the whiteness, the flashing of light, God’s voice booming out that he is pleased with Jesus. We understand that Jesus holds a conversation with Elijah and Moses about his own exodus to come. Mark tells us that the apostles were frightened. The apostles suggest to Jesus that they erect tents; 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. Luke adds about Peter: He did not know what he was saying. So many times when we witness a miracle we do not comprehend what is really happening. Our perspective is too narrow, our view too limited. We want to hold and keep the present beyond its purpose. We fear the future and regret the past. The present, we tell ourselves, is something we can control. And so we try to hold on to a transfiguration that is meant to be a transition to something new. We trust what we know . . . and we fear what we do not.
I am amazed that God continues to accompany us when we are so tiny beside his greatness, so stingy beside his mercy, and so self-centered beside his generosity. I am thinking of a prayer I have just read in Phyllis Tickle’s THE DIVINE HOURS: PRAYERS FOR SPRINGTIME (255): “Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves. Keep me both outwardly in my body and inwardly in my soul, that I might be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul”. We want so much to draw out our happiness so that it might last forever. We yearn to capture serenity and hold it fast. We wish that sadness and loss were experiences we did not have to suffer; and when transfiguration comes we want to remain in it . . . not noticing that once we have been transformed we must go forth to transform the world.
As we approach Holy Week and the miracle of Easter when Jesus suffered, died and rose again to bring us the gift of eternal life, let us follow Jesus along with James and Peter and John to the top of our own high mountain to experience the vision of dazzling whiteness and the gift of transfiguration; and let us celebrate. How glad and how grateful we must be that Jesus did not follow the suggestion of his friends and remain on the mountain forever in a state of bliss. How blessed and how graced are we that Jesus abides with us each day calling us to our own transfiguration. How good and how gracious is our God that he visits us – his little children – constantly and faithfully . . . to grant us miracles in our sorrow, light in our darkness, and peace in all our adversity.
A re-post from March 28, 2012.
Image from: http://www.3pipe.net/2011/01/giovanni-bellini-st-francis-in-desert.html
Tickle, Phyllis. THE DIVINE HOURS: PRAYERS FOR SPRINGTIME. New York: Doubleday, 2001. Print.
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