I was visiting an inmate on death row who, after eight years of visits, has become a friend. He is a Catholic and attends Mass weekly in their minuscule prison chapel. He said he had a problem with some of our Lenten practices: he couldn’t understand why we fast. “Food is a good thing,” he said, “a gift from God. Why should I fast and punish my body?”
Prison food is horrible and my friend rarely has a meal he can enjoy with gusto. It must be hard to say grace over a meal served on a dented metal plate; food that, from my friend’s description, is usually rancid or, at best, tasteless. An inmate or a parent struggling to find food to feed his family, aren’t the ones called to fast from food in Lent. The rest of us are. And the fast is not just another way of going on a diet to lose some pounds!
Instead, if we choose to fast this Lent, it might be a way of focusing our attention so that we can respond daily to today’s gospel voice from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” If our stomachs are empty we might identify with Jesus’ special friends, the poor of the earth and find some way to feed their hungers. Our physical hunger will also make us conscious of our emptiness and hunger for God. In this way of thinking, physical hunger and spiritual hunger are easily linked. Then, aware of our hunger for God, the question arises, “What are we going to do to feed that hunger?” The gospel points to Jesus and directs us to, “Listen to him.”
The disciples coming down the mountain ponder what they had heard and they discussed among themselves what “rising from the dead meant.” They have more to travel with Jesus; time to listen to his teaching; time to experience his passion and death; time to be transformed by his resurrection. The listening process has begun for them. At first, they will not get it right, but Jesus will not abandon them and eventually, they will come to understand what being a disciple of Jesus means. Then they will be the ones who will undergo a transfiguration; they will be changed and become obedient to what Jesus has been telling them — they will take up the cross and follow him.
Today’s gospel presents a summary of the Christian life. The mountain experience is what we are doing today as we gather for worship and nourishment. While the valley symbolizes where we go after today’s celebration to live out our Christian vocation. The valley is the place of holiness where we take up the cross to follow Jesus in service to others.
That’s not how a lot of us view holiness, is it, filled with the many daily things our lives ask of us? Feeding the kids? Going to the office or factory? Looking for work? Sitting at a computer? Dealing with mortgages? Etc. Yes, and perhaps this Lent will help us to look beneath the surface of our daily lives where God’s presence is revealed to us — just as God’s presence was revealed on the mountain when the disciples got a glimpse of divinity just beneath the surface of their traveling companion Jesus.
Today we not given a list of “do’s and don’ts.” Perhaps we would like such a list so we would know exactly what discipleship means for us. Instead, we are told to, “Listen to him.” Listening is one of the most precious gifts we can give anyone. Our society is filled with noise and chatter, compounded by text messaging and frequent trivial exchanges on Twitter, “Had a slice of pizza for lunch.” There is something we can practice this Lent: try being better listeners to our family and friends. What are they really saying to us? Have we listened?
We might also try listening to the greater world around us. Those with public platforms and fame usually get the front page stories and the first mentions on newscasts and in blogs. They get heard. But whose voices aren’t being heard? Who speaks for victims? Who speaks up for the poor? Where are the voices speaking on behalf of of our debilitated environment? How and where can we listen to God speaking on their behalf?
As hard as this is to do in our pressurized world, we need to make a little time and space for quiet, prayer and Scripture? Can we steal a few moments each day to practice active listening to God’s Word? It is possible — if we try. I had an aunt who was a workaholic. There’s no other way to describe her! Yet, she kept a worn New Testament on the front seat of her car. When she arrived at the parking lot at her office building, before she got out of her car, she would read a brief passage, think about it for a few minutes and then go to her office for a very long day of work. She was one of the most generous persons, helping not only needy family members and friends, but strangers as well. We discovered a lot about her generosity from strangers who came to her wake service. I think she “listened to him” and was formed into a disciple of Jesus by what she heard in his words from that worn New Testament on her car seat.
The first reading about Abraham, from Genesis, is celebrated as an example of the patriarch’s faith in God. God had promised him and Sarah that they would have descendants as numerous as the stars. Yet God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the son upon whom this promise rested! It Christian typology Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac is a type for the sacrifice of Jesus.
But let’s face it, that’s not what the congregation is going to hear. They will hear that God is asking a father to kill his son. Would it help to introduce the reading with some background? Biblical exegetes explain the story as a way to reject the practice among ancient cultures of human sacrifice. Children were sacrificed to the gods in times of need or before a great battle. This practice could influence the monotheistic faith of the Jews and so the Abraham/Isaac tale is seen as a rejection of that practice. Israel would learn they didn’t have to appease their God to persuade God to favor them. God was always on their side and didn’t need to be manipulated.
In addition, traditional Jewish commentators on this passage held the position that God already knew of Abraham’s fidelity and so God gave him a chance to express it. Later in their history the Jews would see “the binding of Isaac” as a metaphor for their own experience of persecution and suffering as a result of their faithfulness to God in the Law.
GOOD TO BE HERE
In today’s gospel, Peter, James and John felt at home as they saw the “transfigured” Jesus. “It was nice to be there!” Let’s stay here! But Jesus reminded them that their journey was not complete – hardly begun. From now on, Jesus would serve as their map, their route and their guide.
The story or incident of the Transfiguration must have been very special for the Apostles, because all the three synoptic gospels relate it in detail. Just as when Jesus
was baptized by John the Baptist, a voice from out of the clouds had spoken: “This is my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased; hear him!” the same words are heard on the mount of the transfiguration. Just one week before the transfiguration, Jesus asked his friends, Peter, James and John, “Who do people say that I am?”
Now, on top of the mountain, they were given a glimpse of glory to come, along with the sobering warning of impending passion and death. In their lives and ours, glory and passion are inextricably intertwined. We need Faith to believe the former, and
courage to embrace the latter. They had already known Him as a man and a friend and a teacher. Now they put it all together and knew that He was God.
After all, Jesus was a “regular guy”. He went to parties and weddings. He had close friends who cared about him and whom He cared about. He loved his mother. He was an amazing teacher, a charismatic speaker who attracted large crowds to hear him. In the Transfiguration, He is seen in a different Light!
Lent, in a way, is a “mountain climbing” experience towards Easter. Why do we have to go through Lent, fast, prayer, and help the needy? Lent is an opportunity for us to face our fear of God, and discover that we can put our trust into action. Can we trust God enough to sacrifice the normal things of life that we have relied upon to give us pleasure?
When we consider the comforts and “pleasures” of our consumer society today, do we really feel like saying “It’s nice for us to STAY here?” We live in an age of confusion. We don’t even know what poverty is, not having seen and felt how millions and millions live and die in Afghanistan, Africa and dozens of countries around the world.
Peter was not entirely wrong. He wanted to build three shrines. Shrines are firm, Church buildings are fine. But they are not places in which to live. The church of ours is a place to gain perspective and to receive orders for life in the world out there. We can’t stay in the mountaintop.
Lent is the time to figure out how to climb the holy mountain leading to Easter, but only after we have climbed down the mountain of the Transfiguration and walked the valley of Life’s Journey.
“LISTEN TO HIM”
We seem to find less and less time to listen to others. We don’t know how to get closer to people, calmly and without prejudices, and listen to the concerns. We just cannot hear what other people are trying to say. Locked up in our own problems, we walk by other persons without even noticing who they are or what they say. We have lost the art of listening.
Hence, no wonder that we, Christians, have forgotten that our Faith consists in listening to Jesus. Still more: being a follower of Jesus starts with an understanding of what Jesus has said.
As we read in Mark’s narrative, when the disciples saw Jesus transfigured on the high mountain, with his clothes dazzlingly white, they were scared as they found themselves surrounded by a cloud, and heard these words: “This is my Son, the beloved. Listen to him.”
The experience of really listening to Jesus must be awesome, even shocking. Certainly, it cannot be like anything we have always imagined, in our own pious and religious traditions. Certainly, the reality of Jesus’ nature escapes our own human schemes and references. Little by little, Jesus would do away with most of our built-up hopes and expectations, and lead us to a more realistic and authentic Jesus-made-man.
While listening to Jesus, finally, we would find the ultimate truth: someone who has a reason to live and a reason to die. Something within us will tell us that He is right. In Jesus’ life and message we will find the truth.
If we learn to persevere in this patient and constant listening, our life will begin to be enlightened with a new light. We shall discover new ways of facing human problems with new solutions, and we shall be able to confront the mystery of death more humanely. As a result of listening to Jesus, many of our human blunders will be avoided, and some of the infidelities of Christians will be straightened.
Our Christian communities, certainly, must return to hear Jesus’ words
with fidelity. Listening to what He has to say will certainly bring light to some of our secular blind areas; will free us from centuries-old discouragements and cowardice, and will put new blood into our Faith.
THE STRENGTH OF THE GOSPEL
The story/narrative of the Transfiguration of Jesus became very popular among his followers. It is not just another story. The scene, embellished with some symbolism in its narrative, is really grandiose. The evangelists present Jesus with his clothes whiter than any earthly bleacher could make them, with Elijah and Moses next to Him.
The three disciples who had accompanied Him up to the mountain were struck with awe. They did not know what to think about everything they saw. The mystery surrounding Jesus was just too much for them to understand. Mark says: “They were so frightened.”
The scene came to a climax in a most strange manner: “And a cloud came, covering them in shadow; and there came a voice from the cloud: This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to Him.” Jesus’ movement started when his disciples began to listen to Him. His Word, much later gathered in four short Gospels – was received by more and more of his disciples. The Church today will continue to stay alive – if they listen to His Gospel.
The message of Jesus finds today many obstacles trying to reach the men and women of our times. As they abandoned many of the religious practices, most of them have ceased to listen to Him for good. They will never again hear what Jesus had to say, except in very casual manner.
Even those who get in touch with Christian communities will be able to appreciate easily the Word of Jesus. His message gets lost amid so many other customs and doctrines. It is so difficult to capture His deepest message. The liberating strength of His Gospel gets lost amid the various tongues and comments alien to His Spirit.
Yet, even today, the only important and decisive contribution that Christians, today, could offer to modern society is the Good News proclaimed by Jesus, as well as His project for a better and more just world. We cannot continue hiding the humanizing strength of His Gospel.
We must let the moving force run live and abundant amid all communities. Let it get into all homes for everyone to learn new ways in their lives and hear about new hopes in their despair.
We have to learn to read the Gospels together and become familiar with its stories once again. We must, above all, get personally involved with the Good News of Jesus. All our energy must be thrown into this effort. That will be the start of the renewal that Church needs today.
When the Church as an institution has been losing the appeal and attraction it enjoyed for centuries, we must look for the strength and support of Jesus, the Beloved Son of God, still has for anyone searching for truth and life. In a few years, then, we will realize that everything was telling us put once again the Good News at the centre of Christianity.
Voice from the Cloud
The gospel of the Transfiguration celebrates what those three disciples saw – their moment of insight. But the question is what took them so long? Why couldn’t they see Jesus that way before this incident? The answer is to be found in that rather vivid sentence I n the gospel that explains why. The sentence says of three apostles, “Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep and were not fully awake.” This is a good symbol and a lesson that explains why we don’t see God’s glory. We miss so much because our minds are asleep. And, in fact, there are certain things that are designed to keep our minds asleep, say, prejudice that makes us so set in our ideas that our minds are shut. Or overload from the incessant images, commercials, and noise that assault and distract us every day and dull our perceptions. You really have to go apart, seek out some solitude like the disciples, to see behind things.
But mostly, I think, we are not fully awake, we don’t see, because society puts such enormous pressure on us to focus our vision, our energy, our drive solely on the pursuit of a career or fame or celebrity status as the apex of living. And so we wind up giving these things such total devotion and priority that we become insensitive to deeper realities, blind to the human, and indifferent to the lives, joys, journeys, and needs of others.
Spiritual sight comes gradually. At first, most of us notice only the material universe; even then, we often ignore the beauty around us on any given day. We might be awestruck by a spectacular sunset, but tend to be oblivious to the glory of a simple wild flower. It takes a mature eye to notice the details. Similarly, few of us have learned to see into the landscape of the soul. Such seeing takes practice and prayer.
Lent was designed as a time to wake up and examine our priorities. This gospel is suggesting that we too might be missing some transfiguring moments because we’re not fully awake, that we are blinded by the wrong things. Not bad things – just things that are important but simply don’t deserve that much dedication and devotion at the expense of relationships, reaching out to others, and discovering the splendor of what might be there if we took the time to look.
For the disciples, seeing Jesus transfigured before them fills them with awe and terror. Mercifully, a cloud obscures the vision, allowing their eyes to readjust to seeing the ordinary. The challenge for them – and for us – is to train our eyes to see more, so that less needs to be hidden.