Last Sunday’s Gospel took us to the desert of the Lord’s temptations. Today’s Gospel places us on the heights of Mt. Tabor, the mountain of the Jesus’ transfiguration. Accompanying Our Lord are Peter, James, and John, the same apostles who would be with him on that fateful night in the Garden of Gethsemane.
There, the apostles witness an theophany. A brilliant, dazzling light shone from within Our Lord. A light that defied description. The Ven. Fulton Sheen said that at the Transfiguration, “the divinity of Jesus flashed through the threads of his earthly garments” giving the apostles a glimpse of heaven on earth. The fact that Moses and Elijah appear—Moses the Giver of the Law and Elijah representing Israel’s prophetic tradition—reveal Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets.
Why would Jesus be transfigured? Just days before, Jesus spoke about his approaching passion and death. He knew the apostles’ weaknesses, their lack of understanding. He knew their faith would be shaken by the scandal of the cross. The cross, in fact, was the subject of conversation between Moses, Elijah, and Our Lord.
Jesus gave the apostles of glimpse of his heavenly splendor to strengthen them to face the approaching tragedy of his passion and death. He wanted to assure them that beyond Good Friday lay the joy of Easter. Our Lord wanted them to cling to this great hope.
Don’t we need hope when we feel that we have reached the end of our rope—moments of discouragement, anxiety, and doubts—moments when we are asked to embrace and carry a cross.
On Mount Tabor we discover something more. From within the cloud that envelops the apostles, the voice of the Eternal Father is heard. We heard that voice before—at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan. “This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”
The ability to listen is vital to our spiritual life. Samuel said, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” We often turn that around: “Listen Lord, your servant is speaking.” Listening can be a struggle because it’s hard to be attentive in a world of distractions. One writer observed: “We look without seeing, we listen without hearing, and we speak without understanding. We are a wired up, tuned in, hyper-caffeinated generation.”Listening to Jesus means quieting our minds, away from distractions in solitude to hear the Lord.
Take a verse of the Gospels and then reflect on what it says to us, how it applies to our life. At times, we will hear words that console or encourage us. At other times, the words may be a challenge to change. Fr. Nouwen called solitude “the furnace of transformation.” Our temptation would be to flee that furnace, but we should stay with the passage, reading carefully, prayerfully, and obediently.
Let’s not be afraid to enter solitude’s “furnace of transformation." It’s there that, listening to the Lord our hope is strengthened and there that we find our comfort and our challenge.
