Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
“Come back to reality!” Has anyone ever had to tell you this? Today’s gospel reading of the transfiguration brought me to this phrase due to the stark difference of scenes we are presented. At first, the three disciples are witnesses to the glory of Jesus’s dazzling light along with some famous holy figures. But, then, they come down from the mountain and are reminded of the tough road they are still to face ahead. Back to reality! But wasn’t all that they saw true and real?
Many of the early Christian Desert Fathers and Mothers refer to daily spiritual life as ascent and descent - often seeking places of solitude to become more ingrained into the holiness of the transfiguration in every thing. The ascent is the ability to witness, or the awareness of, God’s love for us and neighbor through whatever the present situation. Not quite an “escape” but what Thomas Merton or Richard Rohr would illustrate as going deeper or uncovering what is usually hidden in our daily lives. We all wish we could experience such an ascent every day. I know I do, especially during these gloomy winter months.
The descent from the mountaintop is the door hitting us on our way out of that moment of pleasant peace. In the gospel, the disciples realized there was a lot more still to deal with such as Jesus “rising from the dead” and for him to “suffer greatly”. I bet they could only imagine what torture awaited them as His disciples. We may not be facing such matters as life and death, but our existence can be filled with many different sufferings, thorns to our roses. I’ve experienced seasons of this, where the mountaintops are all around and I wonder, “How can I ever reach that height again?”
What I have been most struck by in my reflection is not just that life is sometimes good and bad but we press on anyway. Even more so, Christ shows us that the reality of his pure Love and Light is just as real as the pain, injustice, misfortune that we feel each day. The mountaintop and the journey downhill are both our reality. They may not be in proportion in amounts of time, but we are surrounded by it all nonetheless.
So when God tells us to not pitch our tents on the mountaintop and reminds us of our road ahead, it is an invitation into something mysterious yet beautiful. That the Light which we seek is attainable. That each struggle we encounter also contains all of the dazzling Light of Christ. Not a reward for “pressing on through the pain” but a reminder to come back to a deeper reality - that God is in all and with all and through all.
May we ask God for the gift to shift our focus on our way down from the mountaintops in our journey with God to the Light visible and invisible. Let us invite Jesus to show us his glory and also strengthen our hearts along the way.
-Joe Oliveri