2nd Sunday of Lent

Mount Arbel overlooks the Sea of Galilee and on a good day gives views to Mount Hermon and the Golan Heights. The view is not only spectacular but it is also a difficult mountain to climb. It allows people a way of overseeing the world and experiencing a moment when you can be close to God. In addition to this experience I have also climbed to the top of Mount Kosciusko. The journey up by the cable chair for a person does not like heights was not too traumatic. You face into the hill and it does not look too far to fall. On the way back you have a view which takes in the whole of the valley. Just as we took off from the top of the station the chair behind us stuck and we suspended between the edge of the ramp from which we had departed and were swinging back and forth between heaven and earth. There was a sense of fear that we could be here all day before the chair started again. What seemed like eternity was probably only a minute! I think we can grasp how Peter, James and John may have felt when they seemed to be so close to heaven!

Today’s Gospel allows to touch that eternal moment

                When Jesus is seen as the completion of the Law and the Prophets

                When the voice in the cloud speaks of him as a beloved son of God

                That we are called to listen to him.

In reading scripture we can often become confused by the many stories that we read and believe that the story of the original testament is different from that of the new. However, what the story of the transfiguration tells us is that there is a continuity of life and faith in God. What Jesus draws us to is an understanding of the heart of God who always reaches out to people. There is a divine will for us to encounter God.

The encounter with God on the mountain can often frighten us because it can seem that in an instant our life is placed in a new context. We can be unsure what to do next and where to turn we can fall back on activity to distract us from this fundamental relationship. The journey down the mountain is probably just as difficult if not more difficult because everything else seems to pale in significance compared to this experience. Also Jesus talks about his dying and rising. This can seem deeply confusing but we know that this is the mystery of the life we live. When we experience this reality for ourselves we start to discover that death is not the end that we thought it would be. There is a mystery of life that continues and draws us together. We see this not only in the many charities that make sense of people’s deaths but also the ability to rebuild after disaster. There is a sense that the transfiguration helps to recognize the God who does not abandon us but calls us to a deeper sense of the paschal mystery present in everyday life.