Transfiguration of the Lord
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 2 Peter 1:16-19 Matthew 17:1-9
The Feast of the Transfiguration is really another Feast of Epiphany. The other great events of Epiphany were; when the Shepherds came to the stable at Bethlehem; when the Wise men came from the east; when John Baptist pointed to ‘The Lamb of God on the Banks of the Jordan. Jesus was revealed as Lord.
Today we commemorate that event when Jesus took the three apostles to the mountain so that He could reveal himself to them as the Son of God. As they shared this moment of Light with the Lord, they wanted to remain there in the awe of the moment. But Jesus had brought them to the height of the mountain for two reasons.
Firstly, Jesus wished them to be alone with Him. If they were to focus on Him they must allow Him to take them to a place of solitude. They would not be able to discern His Glory in the midst of the crowds or be able to hear the Father’s voice in the chaos and confusion of their public ministry. For, as the great Dominican mystic of the Middle-Ages, John Tauler, said, “If God would speak, you must be silent”.
The Second lesson for the apostle in this Epiphany experience was that they could not remain permanently on the mountain top, holding onto this wonderful moment. They had to return to the chaos and confusion and reality of ordinary life!
Peter wanted to capture his experience by building three tents, three monuments, there; One for Jesus, the Messiah; one for Moses the Law giver; one for Elijah, the Prophet. But these eye-witnesses had to descend because the life of an apostle, or any disciple, must be in constant balance between the glorious vision of solitary prayer and the struggle in service of God’s people.
When they came down from the mountain of that experience of the Transfiguration and got on with the life of being apostles, surely Peter drew from the strength of that memory to be the Rock on which the Church was built, surely James, the first of the Apostles to suffer Martyrdom would draw on the strength of Hope and, John, the only apostle to live to Old Age, would be sustained and encouraged by the strength of Faith which he found on Mount Tabor.
So, how can we have anything like the experience of Peter, James and John? Like the apostles and the early disciples we, too, are on a journey, a pilgrimage. We are called in various ways to climb the mountain with the Lord. How will we encounter Him there? The Christian Orthodox monk of the 7th century, Maximus the Confessor taught; “when we take the Bible into solitude and listen attentively to the Word of God, we are doing something similar to what Peter, James and John did.”
Our mountains may not be as real as Tabor was for Peter, James and John, but do have our own journey and we do often face mountains. If we give ourselves the space and time and Silence, we will be responding to the call of the Father, “Listen to Him” and we will surely experience His presence in a real way.