Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
Last week my family took a few days of vacation in the Hocking Hills area where we rented a cabin and explored the beautiful state park, hiking and enjoying Old Man’s Cave, Ash Cave and Cedar Falls. You may already know what a beautiful place it is with amazing rock formations and recesses that have created cave-like areas and waterfalls with moss-covered rocks and cool streams. It was one of those experiences that fills me with a sense of awe and takes me out of my ordinary daily life and rejuvenates my spirit. Maybe you have had such an experience in nature or otherwise in which you are aware of God’s presence in a significant way and would like to remain in it. As in today’s gospel reading on the Feast of the Transfiguration, Peter is so excited and overwhelmed with the goodness of the experience on that mountain that he wants them to set up three tents and stay awhile!
This gospel story (Mark 9:2-10) takes place shortly after Jesus tells the disciples about his eventual suffering, death and Resurrection, giving them hope and strengthening their faith by allowing them to glimpse Jesus’ glory (although they did not fully understand it until after the resurrection). It was a profound spiritual experience for the few disciples that Jesus brought with him up the mountain. And they could not remain there. Just as we cannot live our lives perpetually on vacation or away on a prayerful retreat, the disciples had to come back down the mountain with Jesus and suffer along with him before the Resurrection.
God spoke to the disciples, though, before they left the mountain, and gave them an important message that I believe we are meant to hear today as well. “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Listen to him. Listen to Jesus.
How do we listen to Jesus today? By reading and reflecting on the Scriptures, taking time for prayer and quiet listening, making time away for prayerful retreats and quiet walks with an open heart, listening to other “disciples” in our faith community, and listening to the needs of the poor and marginalized where Jesus resides.
Although we too must return to the ordinary of our everyday lives, we can listen for Jesus, for God’s Spirit, in the ordinary as well. Just as God knew that the disciples would need hope and strength of faith to face what lie ahead, I know I face life’s challenges with much greater peace and freedom when I have taken the time to listen to the Beloved in my daily life as well.
As today’s second reading from 2 Peter (1: 16-19) reminds us also about the importance of God’s message on that “holy mountain,” he advises, “You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
So on this feast of the Transfiguration, let us live with that great hope of the morning star rising in our hearts, for we are a people of faith in Jesus, faith in the Resurrection. Let us “listen to him.”
Eileen Miller