Mt 17:1-9
Dear Friends, Lent is a time to prepare to celebrate the Death and Resurrection of Jesus the Christ with new joy, stronger faith and growing love. This is the great mystery of our faith and that opens the mystery of our life.
Today’s gospel passage focuses on the Transfiguration. This same celebration of the Transfiguration takes place in all three Lenten cycles. It obviously has a special message for our communal Lenten journey. Our task is to let it truly enlighten us as we prepare our basic Lenten task: to embrace the great act of love that is the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
The key passage in today’s gospel are the words of the Father: “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” (Mt 17:5)
Right before going up the mountain with Jesus for this special revelation, Peter had recognized Jesus as the Messiah only to deny his mission to suffer and die. (Mt 16:13-23) In rebuking Peter, Jesus challenged all of us to lose our life, to take up the cross and to follow him. (Mt 16:24-25) Now, the Father is once again inviting Peter, and us, to acknowledge Jesus in all of his truth, not just a diluted version to fit our limited standards. The event of the Transfiguration is our invitation into the mystery of the Suffering Messiah. Like Peter, we are called to try to balance the seemingly contrary truths of Jesus as Messiah and Jesus as the Crucified Savior.
The Father’s words tell us it is as God’s Beloved Son that he will suffer and die. Our task is to embrace Jesus on his terms and “Listen to him.” (Mt 17:5)
Peter had a long journey ahead of him. Only slowly did he learn to “Listen to him.”
Shortly after the vision on Mt. Tabor, the same three disciples joined Jesus for another very special moment in the Garden of Gethsemane. They had a chance “to listen to him” and to witness the incredible anguish of the oncoming Passion and Death. Like the disciples, we need to learn that the transfiguration of pain and suffering foreshadowed in Gethsemane was equally important with the transfiguration of glory and wonder on Tabor. The salvation Jesus calls us to needs to experience death to selfishness along with the glory of our true destiny in the eternal life of the resurrection.
(Mt 17:5) Only gradually did the disciples connect Tabor and Gethsemane’s message: death gives way to life when we follow Jesus and “listen to him.” Jesus became the disciples map and a guide. That is our call in this Lenten Season. We need to learn to “listen to him” as we face the darkness of life.
Like the disciples, it is the same with us. As we are caught in the seemingly endless challenges of good and evil: whether the war in Ukraine or the unending gun violence, the turbulence of our political scene or the burden of the distortion and abuse of the multiple expressions of our sexuality, or the simple but relentless demands of family life or the various passages in life from beginning school to aging. All these, and so much more, call us to “listen to him.” (Mt17:5) He is the Beloved Son that will show us the way.
As many times as we have heard the story of the Transfiguration, it still holds the seeds of light and wisdom, of hope and tenderness. It reminds us how close God is to us and how thin the curtain between the divine and human truly is. We are always on the edge of our human frailty and mortality. Equally, we are on the threshold of eternal life and happiness. Whether it is the brokenness of our relationships, the consequences of sin, or the corruption of our world, we need to search the depths of our hearts and “Listen to Him!” (Mt 17:5) will reveal anew that the last word is not sickness, injustice, prejudice, and the foibles of nature’s awesome power or even death. The last word revealed in the Crucified and Risen Christ is life and the victory of love. Once again, our journey to Jerusalem in Lent and, more so in our life, is an invitation to enter into the mystery. This mystery joins the Divine and the relentless afflictions in our life with the suffering and glorious Messiah. It leads to the victory of Easter.
