High Places

Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
Readings for Sunday

Reflection:

I pose this question; was the physical transfiguration of Jesus (Oh, and the voice from heaven saying; “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”) the cause of the conversion experienced by Peter, James, and John or was it that their faith allowed them to understand what would otherwise have been confusing?

Of course this question is somewhat rhetorical since we cannot know the minds of the disciples at the time this event took place. But we can speculate about people in general and ourselves specifically in similar situations. If we had been blessed to have been around those 2,000 years ago and have been singularly honored to have been invited by the Lord to go up the high place (the symbolism from ancient Hebrew would have been to a “holy place”) knowing what we know today about Jesus; how he was born to the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit; baptized by John in the Jordan; how he healed the sick, walked on water, and of all the other signs he performed; having faith, as we do, that he is the only Son of God; would we have understood what was talking place as he was revealed?

I would hope that, for us with our two millennia history of faith, it would be a “no brainer”. Yet for the disciples who did not have the rest of the story, seeing Jesus suddenly changed in front of their eyes; seeing the two most important figures from Old Testament scripture, Moses and Elijah, standing with their teacher would have been mind bending. It is understandable that they would have been confused and afraid. While they were sure, at this point, Jesus was special, up to this time the final leap of faith was not solidly made. Then to hear the voice of God accompany that tableau, it must have nailed their hearts to the ground. We can only imagine the force of that revelation. The hardest part of the whole situation must have been for them to obey Jesus when he told them: “…not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”

Peter was following those instructions even as he related the event again in his letter we heard as the second reading today; “’This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.” This is important because there were probably skeptics around when, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, this story was made public. Heck, there are skeptics around today who don’t believe even though they know the whole story.

So, going back to the original question, what do our reflections on this miraculous event tell us? First, we know that seen through the eyes of faith, this event serves to confirm what we, as a people of that faith, believe and it strengthens our belief and understanding. We also understand that without that lens, the event at best would be confusing and frightening. At the very least, without faith, the Transfiguration would seem like a hallucination, perhaps brought on by oxygen deprivation.

Now, knowing that the Holy Spirit is at work actively in our lives, are there times when we see an event and think, “This does not make sense.” Or “How/Why did this happen?” We need to remember the lesson of the transfiguration. We need to view the events of our lives though that same lens of faith in the Lord, God and Man, unified in the Holy Trinity. Our rational selves must be linked with our hearts of faith so the Lord can make himself known to us. That truly is a lesson learned from this blessed event.

Pax