The Transfiguration of Our Lord

Tomorrow, on August 6, is the Feast of the Transfiguration.  In short, that's when the three disciples closest to Jesus during his earthly ministry got a dose of just who and what the Christ really was:

And after six days Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart: And he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow. And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him.

And Peter answering, said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them. And lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him.

And the disciples hearing, fell upon their face, and were very much afraid. And Jesus came and touched them: and said to them, Arise, and fear not. And they lifting up their eyes saw no one but only Jesus. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying: Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead.

Matthew 17:1-8

So there you have it, that wonderful moment we all long for when God gives us a little glimpse of the beyond, the world past this veil of here and now. 

Now this got me to thinking, as I am wont to do.  I admit I had a bit of a rant earlier, and part of me was tempted to delete the post in hindsight.  But I think not.  I admit it, it's frustrating that, at times, it appears I gave everything up in life for this faith that appears to have moved on without me.  Looking at the hardships it has placed on my family, on my kids especially, I can get a bit broody.  But that's the way of it, if you think about it.  Take for instance the passage that will be read for August 6.

Now, the reading ends with Jesus telling his disciples not to tell, which He often did after some flagrant showing of just Who He Was.  What follows this passage in Matthew's Gospel is a little bit of water thrown on the face.  Jesus and His three disciples come down from the mountain, who knows what they're feeling - elation, rapture, the touch of the Divine.  But when they get down, what happens?  A man comes to them and begs Jesus to cast out a demon that has possessed his son.  He explains that he asked Jesus' disciples, but they couldn't do it.  And this is what Jesus  says:

“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.”

You get that?  You can almost hear Jesus sigh in frustration.  Coming down from this moment in which Jesus was able to be Who He Was, and show his closest followers a brief glimpse, now he had to come back down and deal with reality. 

Well, guess what.  Welcome to religious life.  That's something I need to remember.  For me, my mountain top experience started at a Catholic monastery in southern Indiana on a cool, cloudy November week in 1999.  I hadn't planned on anything too spiritual (it was a Catholic place after all).  But once I was there, the presence of God hit me like a ton of bricks.  From that point on, I wanted to find a way to capture what I felt in such a small portion, eventually taking steps to enter into the Catholic Church about seven years later. 

There have been some more 'Mountaintop' experiences, I must admit.  But there have been some valleys, too.  And I have to say, because of the sheer reality of things in the world, it seems more like valley than mountain in the last several years.  And yet, that's how it is.  We all wish we could, like Peter, just build a little place in the sun on that mountain and stay there.  That's natural.  But that's not what God calls us to be about.  Unlike so much 'spritiualism' of today, that centers on me and how awesomely spiritual I am, God calls us to get down off that mountain and go, go back to the man and the demon possessed boy, and those disciples who just don't have the faith to do what they should be able to do. 

So as we approach the day set aside to remember the Transfiguration, it's worth noting that we'll all have moments in life where we feel like this.  And we wish that it wasn't so.  But it's what we're called to be about.  When we have those uplifting spiritual revelations or experiences, great!  But remember, they're really just pit stops, designed to get us back to the meat and potatoes of our religious lives, and that is the living out of God's love for the sake of all His children.  Just a thought on the eve of the Feast of the Transfiguration.