Your Transfiguration
Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, Year B – 25 February 2024
I hope that thinking back you will be able to remember mountain-top transfiguration experiences. One transfiguration moment that I experienced relates to this Gospel for today. Many years ago, as a young man, I caught a bus from Nazareth to the base of Mount Tabor, the mountain on which Jesus was transfigured. It was in the middle of winter, and very cold, and when I arrived there the whole mountain was covered in a dense, misty cloud. I started walking up the mountain, just following the narrow road, not knowing how far it was and how close I was to the top. There was a visibility of about 10 metres and I remember feeling a bit frightened and anxious.
After a long walk, I finally reached the top of the mountain, which was still covered in dense mist, and found my way to the magnificent Basilica of the Transfiguration. The doors were open, and I was the only one there. I remember sitting alone in the church in the dim light and the cold. It seemed like the mist was coming right into the church. After sitting alone there for quite a while, praying over the Gospel of the Transfiguration, sunlight which had begun to pierce the mist started to peek through the, beautiful stained-glass windows of the basilica. It felt like I was present in the Gospel event.
On this second Sunday of Lent, the focus is on Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain. On the mountain, in the presence of Peter, James and John, Jesus’ divinity shone through his humanity, and he was seen talking to the great Old Testament figures, Moses and Elijah.
The meditation on the transfiguration during Lent becomes for us a prediction of what lies at the end of Lent – the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Like the disciples, during this season we are on a journey to Jerusalem which will culminate in the death and resurrection of Jesus on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The Transfiguration was meant to strengthen these disciples for the events of Holy Week, when their faith would be so sorely tested. Likewise, we are meant to be strengthened by our praying of this Gospel event, on our Lenten journey.
The point is that Easter is meant to be our Transfiguration experience. And Lent is our walking up the mountain. If we do not walk up the mountain. If we do not prepare ourselves spiritually, the grace of the transfiguration experience of the Resurrection of Jesus will be diminished for us.
This connects with the great conundrum of the spiritual life. While all is grace, all is God’s initiative and God’s work, we need to cooperate with the good work God wants to do in us. We need to invite and give God permission to work in our lives. And often, our cooperation with God’s work requires discipline and spiritual practice on our part. It is not a lazy, apathetic, undisciplined lying on a spiritual couch. It requires effort and sacrifice and engagement. This is how we open ourselves to grace of God. The discipline of our Lenten programme, our walking up the mountain, is a preparation for experiencing the Risen Christ at Easter.
The closest companions of Jesus were invited to this experience of the Transfiguration. Our companionship with Jesus requires a faithfulness and attentiveness – we need to give something of ourselves to the friendship, not just demand what we want and when we want it. Companionship is a relationship not a supermarket.
Our transfiguration moments typically won’t be extraordinary theophanies, that is, revelations of the Persons of the Trinity, as it was in today’s Gospel, nor will they be, for the most part, dramatic Damascus Road-like conversions, as in the case of St Paul. More typically, our transfiguration moments will be quite subtle, requiring a perseverance and discipline on our part, a cultivated listening and longing, a putting ourselves in a position to be attentive to the divine breaking through into our lives. There is so much that blocks or shuts out the voice of God in our lives, and in our world today. Today’s Gospel tells us to listen to Jesus, the Father’s beloved Son.
Many scholars speak of this Transfiguration event as a prayer experience for Peter, James and John. Mountains in the Bible signify places of encounter with God, places where God reveals himself to people. Prayer is our mountain-top, transfiguration experience in which we encounter God and he shows himself to us.
Thomas Merton famously said that the most important thing about prayer is just making the time to pray, to take time for prayer. And our prayer needs silence, faith and trust. Prayer is entering into conversation, a relationship with God. Prayer leads us to see the deeper reality behind the forms of this world.
The point of this is that in order for us to experience the presence and love of Christ in our lives, we need to put ourselves in a space to receive that, and we do that through our prayer. And unless we tap into, or get a glimpse of, the divinity of Jesus shining through his humanity, we will not make much progress in the spiritual life; we will not engage with Jesus Christ in a meaningful, direct and personal way. A way which reveals Jesus to be found in the everyday concerns of our lives. A way which establishes a communion between us and him. Our faith aims for a direct, immediate experience of the person of Jesus. Christianity is not a moral code, a philosophy, a set of rules and commandments; it is a living, dynamic personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
And like Peter, James and John, who needed to be prepared and strengthened for the suffering and death of Jesus, we too need transfiguration moments in our lives to carry us through the difficult times. The Transfiguration confirms for us that there is a spiritual reality that is much greater and more beautiful than the ordinary world of matter that we more readily experience around us.
What Transfiguration experience do you and I need at this time? What difficulties and suffering are we facing? Surely, we all know the experience of doubt and despair. How do we keep going? How do we keep hope alive? How do we hang onto faith, when times are so tough, when we are tired and worn out?
It might sound daunting and overwhelming to hear, but in these situations the only thing we can do is put our best foot forward, to engage in the discipline of the spiritual practices that are recommended to us. We need to keep walking up the mountain, seeking God, seeking prayer. Even though we cannot always see the Transfigured Christ, our time of testing is what makes our appreciation and engagement with the light of the Resurrection so much more valuable and meaningful.
Think of Abraham and the extraordinarily difficult test he was put through. He had to walk up the mountain, carrying the burden of the task of sacrificing his beloved son, Isaac. Imagine if he stopped halfway because the going was tough or refused to go up the mountain at all.
In the psalm for Mass this Sunday, the psalmist expresses trust in the face of great suffering and pain. Trust in God, no matter how difficult and challenging, always has life-giving consequences. It is the path that leads to life.
Today the Transfiguration strengthens us and gives us hope. God is for us as St Paul says in the second reading. Nothing will ever separate us from the love of Christ. After the Transfiguration, the disciples saw only Jesus. Like them, we keep Jesus before our eyes.