Transfigured In Faith Series

Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus 2021

Whenever I read Gospels such as the one today, where Jesus is transfigured before his key disciples, speaks with Moses and Elijah, and then tells the witnesses not to tell anyone else about the vision, I think of Isaiah chapter 55. God is speaking: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” You see, when Peter, James and John–and these were the critical leaders of Christ’s team–when they come away from that awesome experience, one says to the others, “hey, what does that mean–rising from the dead?”

Really? According to Luke, this transfiguration happened when Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem for what Moses and Elijah called His “Passover,” His ultimate sacrifice we commemorate whenever we celebrate Eucharist. That means Jesus has already performed miracle after miracle, fed thousands with just a little food and divine power, and many times preached on belief in Him and living forever. So Peter, James and John are just showing us that not understanding Jesus is pretty normal for human beings. God’s plans are clear enough to the Blessed Trinity, but often leave us scratching our heads and demanding explanations. We keep expecting God to act like us, forgetting that it is we who are made in God’s image and likeness. We are venal, egoistic, always looking out for number one, ourselves. God is all gift. God is constantly, infallibly working for our salvation, and He’ll do anything to make that happen except deceive our intellect or trample on our free will.

The author of Deuteronomy, reflecting on all that God had done for Israel as He took them out of slavery and gave them the land of Palestine, is almost rhapsodic: “Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live?” God is not like anything else; He is entirely different in being from all He created. And He does things like rescue a whole nation, with the idea that they will be totally devoted to Him, obey His commandments and attract all the other nations to right worship and right living. Even when they screw up and turn their backs on their call, He continues to work to turn them back to the right path. He had to slap them down a few times–even send them into exile on at least three occasions–but He never abandoned them. Every left turn and about face in their path was managed by the divine hand of love so that at exactly the right point of human history, there was a faithful woman, a virgin, in Nazareth. This woman, Mary, heard the divine call, asked a simple question like “Really? I’m a virgin but I’ll be mother of the Messiah?” And then she said, “yes.” This was the turning point in human history, the moment the cosmos had held its breath awaiting, the breaking in of the divine action of faith, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the greatest gift from God to humans.

Does this not call for a total response of faith from us, weak and sinful though we are, to the same call? Can we not look confidently to God and ask for a similar transformation? Can we not spend an hour a day in prayer, in reading the Word of God, in contemplating Jesus, Moses, Elijah on the mountaintop? And then can we look for opportunities to tell that story to anyone who is open to hear it? What rewards are in store for those who believe, trust and love as Jesus asked us to do!