28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure,[a] which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)
34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen. (Luke 9: 28-36)
When I read this Gospel passage about the Transfiguration, I
think that I should be in wonder and awe at the amazing event that happened.
How awesome it must’ve been to be there with Peter, James, and John, seeing the
Lord transfigured. However, whenever I read this passage, my heart immediately
turns to envy. I mean, why can’t I experience that? It would be so much easier
to live a life of faith if I could just see Jesus transfigured. I would be able
to put everything behind me, stop my sinfulness. I would’ve seen Jesus and
everything would be okay. I would be good from that point on.
I mean, ultimately, if you had seen Jesus that way, would
you go back to your sinfulness? No!. You wouldn’t. But the reality is, looking
at Peter, James, and John, they did go back to their sinful selves. Even having seen Jesus transfigured they still
turned back to their sinfulness.
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| Transfiguration of Jesus |
Nevertheless, we all long to see Jesus and in a way that
changes our lives, to see Jesus as he is meant to be seen, not only as a man,
but also man and God. To see him transfigured, his clothing white, his face
shining in radiance like the sun. Do we not long for that time?
The transfiguration only happens if we follow the path that
the apostles did. We can experience the Lord in a similar way, but we have to
put forth some effort. When we think about Peter James, and John, we have to
remember that they didn’t just wake up one morning and go up on a mountaintop with
Jesus. Jesus didn’t say, “Peter, wake up! I got something to show you.” And the
mountaintop experience didn’t happen the day after Peter was called either.
Jesus called, and he to answer. Peter, James, and John were all called. They
all had to say “yes” to the Lord, and they had to leave their life behind.
If we wish to see Jesus transfigured, we have to leave
something behind us. We have to. In a sense, we have to change our lives. During
Lent, everyone gives up something. For 40 days. What a blessing to give it up
for 40 days! But if you want to see Jesus transfigured in your life, you can’t
just give up something for 40 days. You have to take that thing that is a
barrier to your experience of Jesus and leave it behind permanently. What is
getting in the way of your experience of Christ? Is it vice? Your attachment to
the world? Is it pride? Is it laziness? What is getting in your way of
experiencing Christ and loving him more? Peter, James, and John had to leave
that behind.
What did Peter, James, and John do? They followed after
Jesus, and it wasn’t like the next day after they left everything behind, that
they went on top of the mountain and saw Jesus transfigured. No. They had several
mountain experiences with Jesus where he was never transfigured. They went off
to pray with the Lord often. They followed Jesus, doing the hard work Jesus
asked, and Jesus was not transfigured before them yet. But they trusted, and
they kept going.
Similarly, all of us, after placing those things behind,
need to go about our daily lives, trudging one foot after the other in the
Christian life, hoping that the mountaintop experience will be there. It will
be, but it will be revealed to us in God’s time, not in our time. Then once we
experience that, we need to climb that mountain. Peter, James, and John went up
the mountain with Jesus. The Lord said, “Come with me! Climb the mountain!”
I don’t know about you, but whenever someone asks me to
climb a mountain, I’m not overjoyed. They say, “Come with me! Sweat! Climb the
mountain! Be uncomfortable!” If they were like me, Peter, James, and John would
probably say something like, “Oh Jesus, you’re coming back down, aren’t you?
All right. I’ll see you in 10. I’ll just wait down here.” Climbing mountains is
not my game.
And remember, this is not the perfect mountain. There’s no Visitors
Welcome Center at the top of this mountain. No nice bathroom. No drinking
fountain. It’s just mountain. Nothing to plug in your iPhone. So what are these
mountain top experiences for? Ultimately these mountaintop experiences were for
prayer. These are necessary for you to experience Jesus in this new way. You have
to detach from the things of this world, detach from the comforts of this
world, and seek out those mountaintop experiences.
I was recently at a Rekindle the Fire men’s conference with
1300 other men. It was a mountain experience where you separate yourself from
the things of the world. It was a beautiful, gorgeous day. A beautiful day! And
what did these men choose to do? Stay indoors and listen to people yap at them!
Why did they do that? That’s a sacrifice! They did it so they could draw closer
to Christ in prayer. This was a mountaintop experience. We need to seek these
experiences out.
But the temptation of these mountaintop experiences is stay
there on the mountain. Isn’t this just what Peter did? Peter said, “Let’s make three
tents. Let’s stay here.” It’s always a temptation when we get close to Christ,
when we experience him in a new way, we want to stay here, we want to stay on
this emotional high. We want to stay where we are experiencing the Lord and his
love. But the reality is that we are not meant to stay in that emotional high.
I’ve seen this in a lot of other denominations. They bring out the rock band and
the big screen with the music and a light show, and all that’s nice and good,
but it’s done to keep people on this emotional high of “Yes! I love Jesus! Awesome!”
But that emotional high is just not sustainable, is it? We have to go back down
the mountain. That transfiguration is ultimately what we will experience every
day in heaven. It is not what we will experience every day in this world. Jesus
says, “Peter, you don’t know what you are asking. I’m not looking for you to
remain on this mountain permanently. I want you to take this experience and go
back into the world, go back into your life, and keep me before your eyes. The
last step in this process is to go back down the mountain.”
Brothers and sisters, we come to the mountain every Sunday.
The altar is a mountain of sorts. The priest processes in and goes up the steps
because the altar is always raised on high. Upon this mountain, before your
eyes, the Lord becomes be present. The challenge is the very same challenge
that was made to Peter, James, and John. Will you take what you experience here
and will you allow it to affect your life when you leave this mountain? Will
you be able to keep the Lord transfigured before your eyes?
You have a couple of choices just like the apostles did.
These apostles did not always succeed in keeping the transfigured Christ before
their eyes. After all James and John said, “Let me sit at your right hand and your
left, Jesus. Let me, in my pride, be counted among the great leaders of the
apostles.” Did they keep the transfigured Christ before their eyes? No. They
let their pride take over.
Peter, the very one who said, “Jesus, I will die for
you,” said, after Jesus’s arrest, “Jesus? No, I don’t know him. No. No, I don’t
know him. Who is that guy? I’m not a Galilean. What you talking about?”
Only
the beloved disciple kept Jesus before his eyes and stayed there at the foot of
the cross.
All of you, at one point in your life or another, have, I
hope, felt the closeness of Christ. It is not a closeness that you are going to
feel every day. However, the challenge is, can you keep that experience before
your eyes every day so that when the Lord wants you back off the mountain, you’re
able to walk your path with faith.
Who are you going to be? When you go to Mass,
you are about to see Jesus transfigured before you. Will you be Peter and deny
him Would you say, “I don’t know the man? I only know the man on the mountain.
Or I only know the man when I have that emotional high. Or I only like Jesus when
he gives me something that I like.” Or will you be like James and say, ”I am
prideful because of this experience. I’m better than everyone else in the
world. And I will show you this by my insight.” Or will you be like the beloved
disciple and allow the experience of this altar to change you in such a way
that, when you leave here, you keep this image before you and you act
differently because of it. You didn’t run away from the cross, but, rather, you
live with that at any moment and trust no matter what you are feeling at that
moment. You will know that you have experienced Christ, and nothing in your
life, whether good or bad, can change that.
Let us experience Christ and be
changed because of it.
--Father Jacob Meyer
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