The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today alert us to those moments and events on our journey where God may be calling us to a path we may not have chosen for ourselves.
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| Path of Presence |
The reading from the Book of Genesis describes the call of Abram and the migration of his family.
* [12:2] The call of Abraham begins a new history of blessing (18:18; 22:15–18), which is passed on in each instance to the chosen successor (26:2–4; 28:14). This call evokes the last story in the primeval history (11:1–9) by reversing its themes: Abraham goes forth rather than settle down; it is God rather than Abraham who will make a name for him; the families of the earth will find blessing in him.1
Psalm 33 declares the greatness of human beings consists in God’s choosing them as a special people and their faithful response.
* [Psalm 33] A hymn in which the just are invited (Ps 33:1–3) to praise God, who by a mere word (Ps 33:4–5) created the three-tiered universe of the heavens, the cosmic waters, and the earth (Ps 33:6–9). Human words, in contrast, effect nothing (Ps 33:10–11). The greatness of human beings consists in God’s choosing them as a special people and their faithful response (Ps 33:12–22).2
In the reading from the Second Letter of Timothy we are reminded of redemption from sin and the call to holiness of life.
* [1:9–10] Redemption from sin and the call to holiness of life are not won by personal deeds but are freely and graciously bestowed according to God’s eternal plan; cf. Eph 1:4.3
The Gospel of Matthew tells of the Transfiguration of Jesus.
* [17:1–8] The account of the transfiguration confirms that Jesus is the Son of God (Mt 17:5) and points to fulfillment of the prediction that he will come in his Father’s glory at the end of the age (Mt 16:27). It has been explained by some as a resurrection appearance retrojected into the time of Jesus’ ministry, but that is not probable since the account lacks many of the usual elements of the resurrection-appearance narratives. It draws upon motifs from the Old Testament and noncanonical Jewish apocalyptic literature that express the presence of the heavenly and the divine, e.g., brilliant light, white garments, and the overshadowing cloud.4
Mike Cherney sees a set of examples where God has called individuals to move forward along a path that they would not likely have chosen on their own.
If I imagine myself in the place of one of the apostles as he experiences the transfiguration, I can see myself in the same state of fear and confusion that Peter, James and John must have felt. I can picture myself wondering what had just occurred. I am left with a personal feeling that the transfiguration was much more of an event for the apostles than it was for Jesus. They see Jesus as taking their religious and cultural history one step further and with His final comment in today’s Gospel, Jesus’ role as the fulfillment of salvation history becomes known. These three disciples have been given a profound religious experience. They have been charged to share this experience when the time comes.5
Don Schwager quotes Origen (185-254 AD), a noted early church bible scholar and teacher, who explains the significance of Jesus' transfiguration for our own lives.
"Do you wish to see the transfiguration of Jesus? Behold with me the Jesus of the Gospels. Let him be simply apprehended. There he is beheld both "according to the flesh" and at the same time in his true divinity. He is beheld in the form of God according to our capacity for knowledge. This is how he was beheld by those who went up upon the lofty mountain to be apart with him. Meanwhile those who do not go up the mountain can still behold his works and hear his words, which are uplifting. It is before those who go up that Jesus is transfigured, and not to those below. When he is transfigured, his face shines as the sun, that he may be manifested to the children of light, who have put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. They are no longer the children of darkness or night but have become the children of day. They walk honestly as in the day. Being manifested, he will shine to them not simply as the sun but as he is demonstrated to be, the sun of righteousness." (Commentary on Matthew)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 17:1-9 comments that this “mountaintop” experience must have shored up Peter’s faith. He saw the glory of God! He heard God say that Jesus is his beloved Son and that he is worth listening to. All of these things were very good. Did Peter need to go back down the mountain and continue to follow Jesus to the cross? Yes, but that didn’t take away his need to be on that mountain—his need to be strengthened and filled.
Jesus is calling you to come away with him to a high mountain too. He is asking you to make time for him every day. Pray. Go to Mass. Ponder his Word. Sit in his presence, and be filled with awe and wonder at who he is. But don’t stop there. God has a message for you today. He wants to touch your heart and speak to you. Just as Peter heard, “This is my beloved Son” (Matthew 17:5), you can listen for the Holy Spirit to say, “Behold the Lamb of God” when you receive Jesus in Communion. Or “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord” when it’s time to come down from the mountain.7
Peter Edmonds SJ explains how hearers of the Lent gospels in Year A follow Jesus from desert to tomb.
On the mountaintop, Jesus’s figure reflected the appearance of God in the brightness of his face and the sheen of his clothing (Ezekiel 8:2). He was not alone. Moses, the great law-giver, and Elijah, the mighty prophet, kept him company. Peter reacted as if they were already in heaven where, according to popular belief, the blessed dwell in tents. But at once a voice was heard, speaking about Jesus. He was indeed the Son of God, as Peter had declared, but he was also the one whose voice was to be obeyed: ‘Listen to him’. God now spoke, not as in the past through Moses, but through Jesus, and the disciples were only too aware that his message was that of the cross. He was the prophet whom God had promised Moses that he would send, whom the people were to heed (Deuteronomy 18:15).8
Friar Jude Winkler expresses that there is some hardship in the journey with Christ. Elijah and Moses are apocalyptic figures who knew what heaven was like. Friar Jude reflects on the value of our luminous experiences as support for our journey.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments the Enneagram is a tool that can help us move from dualistic thinking to nondual consciousness. It helps us recognize and forgive the paradoxes that we all carry, what we might call our “sins.” The Enneagram shows us how we continually do things we don’t want to do (our fixations, passions, and patterns) and can’t quite seem to do the things we want (see Romans 7:15-20).
Eventually we have to admit that our mistakes and failures (our “sins”) are our greatest teachers. The Enneagram taught me that like nothing else in my life. It taught me that I’m a living paradox. For the first half of my life, even with my theological training and maybe even because of it, I largely denied that split or avoided it by confessing my sins too quickly—making them something “out there” I could get rid of instead of something “in here” from which I could learn.
Most Christians were trained to think that we would be punished for our sins, but I’ve come to believe we are punished by our sins. The Enneagram helps me to recognize the punishment I’m inflicting on myself when I remain unconscious of the fears and judgments that drive my behavior. When I am not in honest relationship and present to my whole self, I am much further away from the Divine Presence who forgives everything.9
Contemplating the contrast between “mountaintop” spiritual experiences and tendency to do things we don’t want to do invites us to become more aware of Grace that has reassured us of Jesus Presence in all our moments.
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