Our first reading today will sound strange to modern ears. Walking between the dissected carcases of animals was one of the rituals employed in ratifying treaties. The thinking behind this ritual was that tf the treaty is breached, the same bloody fate will befall the offending party. But the important point of the reading is not the ritual of ratification, but the covenant itself. God promises Abram that he will make his descendants as many as the stars of heavenor the sands of the seashore. Despite an apparently infertile marriage, Abram puts his faith in God. With God's help, a barren union produces a great nation.
Today's gospel deals with an equally spectacular transformation. Jesus took with him Peter, James and John up to the mountain to pray, we are told. He would later take that same three to the Mount of Olives and to the gates of Gethsemane on the night before he died. Today's gospel is seen as a preparation for the dark future, a strengthening of the disciples so that they might endure the ordeal that lay ahead. While the incident did not have the desired effect (all three either fell asleep or ran away when the crisis came), it did confirm the three Apostles in this conviction: in the person of Jesus, they were dealing with a reality that reached beyond human experience. On that hill this divine dimension broke through. The three disciples caught a glimpse of the heavenly homeland. For them, it was a heady and thrilling experience, so thrilling that they wanted to remain on there forever. "Let us make three tents," said Peter, "one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." Peter was opting for a religion of passive admiration, not of active participation. But, as Luke tells us bluntly in his account: "He did not know what he was saying."
The Christian life is not exclusively about the divine dimension, about prayerful, isolated ecstasy. The good news is good news for the whole human race, not reserved for the elite few. Our human lives are complex, and indeed are often a mess. In truth, we very often have little understanding of our own selves and our own lives. But the gospel message embraces us all. Jesus was as much interested in and concerned with those whose lives were in a mess as with those who seemed to be in control of their lives. The good news is intended for all, as much for those with their feet on the ground as for those with their heads in the clouds. So the apostles had to come down from the hill with Jesus, and to help him to translate his divine dream into human reality. They had been through the ecstasy; now the agony lay ahead. Their journey would eventually take them to another hill outside Jerusalem where they would hear him cry out in pain and pray for his enemies.
While the transfiguration was an extraordinary incident, it wasn't an isolated event. It was entirely consistent with the way Jesus lived out his life and worked with the people. Through his work and his healing he transfigured and transformed many, many people. He had made the deaf hear, the dumb speak and the lame walk. In other less dramatic instances, he touched people at the very depth of their souls and transfigured them with the power of God's love, that same power that transfigured Jesus himself. All four gospels of full of examples of the transfiguring or transforming power of Jesus. On our Lenten journey we are asked to transfigure each other by the power of God's love in us. We are called to the ministry of change. But we must be prepared also to accompany him down through the valley of tears and on to the hill of Calvary. If we are to be transfigured by his message we must do strange and sometimes painful things indeed: like forgiving our enemies and praying for them, maintaining hope in a world that sometimes seems hopeless, turning the other cheek, giving away our coat to the man who has none, and so on. Through living his message we are gradually being transfigured by him. St. Paul assures us that, eventually, "these wretched bodies of ours will become copies of his glorious body." But, in the meantime, our challenge is to remain with Christ on whatever hill, or in whatever valley, we find him.
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