Feast of the Transfiguration
Cycle B
It really depends upon your
point of view, doesn’t it?
Have you ever had your life
changed because you suddenly saw things a bit differently? Many times we get
caught up in the ordinary of our everyday lives and miss the truth of what’s
going on around us.
Dr. Steven R. Covey, author
of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People, tells in his book of an experience he had on a New York subway one
Sunday morning. He says that people were sitting quietly. Some were reading
newspapers, some were dozing, others were simply sitting with their eyes
closed. It was a rather peaceful, calm scene. At one stop a man and his
children entered the car. The children were soon yelling back and forth,
throwing things, even grabbing people’s newspapers. It was all very disturbing
and yet the father just sat there next to him and did nothing. It was not
difficult to feel irritated. Steven could not believe the man could be so
insensitive as to let his children run wild and do nothing about it. It was
easy to see that everyone else in the car was annoyed as well. So finally, with
what he thought was admirable restraint and patience, Steven said to the man,
“Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you
couldn’t control them a little bit more?” The man lifted his gaze as if coming out
of a dream and said, “Oh, you’re right. I guess I should do something about it.
We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I
don’t know what to do and I guess they don’t know how to handle it either.”
Dr. Covey said, “Can you
imagine what I felt at that moment? Suddenly I saw things differently. Because I saw differently, I felt differently. I behaved differently. My irritation vanished. I didn’t have to worry
about controlling my attitude or my behavior. My heart was filled with this
man’s pain. Feelings of compassion and sympathy flowed freely. ‘Your wife just
died? Oh, I’m so sorry! Can you tell me about it? What can I do to help?’”
That was Steven Covey’s
moment of transfiguration, a moment of revelation that sustained him in a
difficult situation. Peter, James and John had the vision of Jesus’
transfiguration to sustain them during the difficult times to come. The next
time Jesus took the three of them off with him by themselves was in the Garden of Gethsemanie
To be transformed is to be changed. To be transfigured is to see things differently, as they really are.
Peter couldn’t see clearly up there on the mountain. But over time, with a lot
of prayer, pondering, suffering and preaching the good news, he came to see
Jesus for who he really is. Jesus didn’t change. Peter’s understanding did.
Because he saw differently, he felt differently, and because he felt
differently, he behaved differently.
And how Peter had changed
from the time of this gospel account until he wrote his letters decades later!
In the gospel, he’s really scared. He falls down to the ground in fear, and
says some pretty silly things. Like the man on the train, Peter didn’t really know
what to say or do; he didn’t understand what was happening before him.
The Peter we hear in his
second letter is very different. Gone is the simple fisherman from Capernaum
And if you thought it scared
Peter to see Jesus as he really was, how do you think it made him feel as he
himself was transfigured? It can be frightening to learn who you really are,
who you are called to be for the world. Peter had come to know what it means to
be truly human. To be truly human is to be like God. And Peter saw what that
God was doing. He was teaching, preaching, working tirelessly to bring the gospel
to the people. Desperate to have his children truly know him for who he was. He
was putting his life on the line daily, and he finally lost that life in a
horrible way.
Is that what was in store for
Peter if he lived out his true humanity? Is that what’s in store for all of us?
Peter didn’t know. But he, James and John had a decision to make. They could
take their newfound knowledge of Jesus and continue to follow him, or they
could go away, back to their livelihoods. Or worse yet, they could drift off to
the fringes of his followers, simply tagging along without taking on any of the
responsibilities of discipleship.
We all have the same decision
to make that the apostles did. Sooner or later we’ll be hit with the
realization of who Jesus really is in our lives, and we’ll have to decide what
to do next. That realization might be found in a passage of scripture, it may
be found here at Mass, or during a serious illness or family crisis. It may be
a simple acceptance that grows out of many years of quietly walking with the
Lord. But our lives will transfigured. And we can either continue in our old
ways of living, we can drift off to the fringes of the community without taking
on the added responsibilities that discipleship brings, or we can embrace those
responsibilities and reach out to others as the Master did.
Our greatest hope is to
someday see Jesus in all his glory. We can catch glimpses of it at times here
on earth. Maybe not as dramatically as the apostles did, but perhaps it comes
in a flash of inspiration, or the deep affection we have for those we love, or
maybe in the glint of hope in a dying person’s eyes. The apostles were overcome
with fear, but Jesus allayed their fears. Jesus’ glory can seem terrible to us
now, because we live sinful lives in a sinful world. But our hope is that
ultimately Jesus’ glory will be our glory. We too will be touched by Him and
take our place at his side in heaven, where there is no fear.
Then we will be as we were
truly created to be.
