Transfiguration: Cycle A 22-23

Transfiguration
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 | 2 Peter 1:16-19 | Matthew 17:1-9

Oh God, who in the glorious transfiguration of your Only Begotten Son confirm the mysteries of faith by the witness of the fathers and wonderfully prefigured our adoption to sonship, grant, we pray, to the servants that, listening to the voice of your Beloved Son, we may merit to become coheirs with him who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen.

It is very clear that we live in a world that is filled with goodness and with evil, with life and with death, with those things that bring us into a place of joy and those things that cast us down into the darkest depression. So why did God create the world this way? Well, it’s clear that there is a reason for these two powers, because the real work of being here is evolution, growth, change, deepening our understanding of who we are, who God is and how we’re supposed to live in this earth and what’s going to happen afterwards. And it’s a struggle, and it's supposed to be a struggle. And when you think about it, you would say, “Well, alright, if we are in this process, what’s the direction? What’s coming,” because it’s so easy to get caught up in the dark side of the world and think that it’s never going to be filled with light.

We look at the first reading, and we see Daniel dreaming a dream, much like we dream about the world that we’re living in, and he has a nightmare. Sometimes the world we’re living in feels like a nightmare: division, discord, separation, isolation, fear. And has he goes through this nightmare of these nations that are all of a sudden in the images of these demonic, devouring creatures, he’s seeing this destruction so powerfully, and it frightens him. And then finally, at the end of his dream, he sees something else, something that’s bright, something that’s filled with light, something that is sitting on a throne. And that’s the image of power and authority. What we see in this dream is the fear that he has of the way power in human beings can be so destructive, so harmful. So much pain can be caused by it, but yet there’s another force, this goodness. And it is light, and it is wonderful, and it is pouring out fire. And fire is the image of purification. So we live in a world of evil in which enters this light, and the light is there to purify, to transform, to change, to evolve human beings out of creatures that can destroy into creatures that give life, from darkness to light.

So then we go to the disciples, and the interesting thing about the disciples in terms of their life with Jesus, they had to have times where they were filled with enthusiasm seeing Jesus do these wonderful miracles and saying, “Oh God, this is just ⎯ life is so much more powerfully good than anything else.” They see goodness pouring out of this man, but then at one point in the ministry, Jesus has a long talk with his disciples. And he said, “Look, I know you believe that we’re here to establish a kingdom of light and truth and goodness, but I want you to know that, in this process of my trying to establish this, I’m going to fail. I’m not going to be able to do it, at least not in the way one might think I can do it. I’m not going to overpower evil. I’m going to let evil overpower me and teach you something about evil, teach you something about which power is stronger, good or evil.” And so I’m sure it was very disturbing to the disciples to think that this thing they were working for, Jesus becoming the one who would rule the temple, and they would be there ruling it with them, that had to bring up a lot of fear and a lot of darkness. And so what happens? Jesus decides to take the disciples, not all of them, Peter, James and John, all three who are part of the letters of the New Testament ⎯ he took them, because they were somehow his core group, up on a mountain after he had said that he’s not going to survive the power of evil. And he’s turned into light, enlightenment, something that overpowers darkness, and they see the promise that God is making that the world is always going to be moving toward life, toward light, away from darkness. And what he shows them is they have a clear understanding that the role of Jesus, the role of God throughout history has been to reveal himself slowly, and so we see the evolution of religion in this moment of transfiguration when Jesus is there and with him is Moses and Elijah. Moses is the law. Elijah is the prophets, and so what you’re seeing is Jesus has come to break open a new image of the work of divinity in the world. And the hope that this work has for all of us, when he’s saying, “Look, we’ve moved out of the place of the law where it’s right and wrong and you must do right or be condemned, and we’re moving out of the prophetic role of having to be told what God says. You’re going to be invited into a relationship with God through this giving up my life,” Jesus says, “to evil. You’re going to be somehow filled with this incredible gift, and it’s not justice anymore. It’s mercy. It’s not darkness anymore. It’s light. That’s what I want you to have as your vision ⎯ your vision.”

So it’s interesting that, when Jesus then has this experience with his disciples of being transformed, it is a vision, and it does explain something about visions. Visions are a way of seeing that which is unseen. And so we don’t know what the future is like, but it’s easy for us to look at anything going on in the world today and say, “Global warming, it’s going to be the end of everything. It’s going to be horrible,” or, “The world is never going to be united again,” or, “Nuclear war is bound to start anytime now and destroy the world.” All those images of darkness need a vision, a way of seeing the unseen that is optimistic and life-producing, hope-producing. That’s the image that I take from this beautiful Feast of the Transfiguration, and when Jesus finished his ministry, and when he was going through it, though, let’s say the disciples weren’t convinced, even though they had this experience. But what I love about the way Peter tells this story, it’s almost like he’s saying, “Look, I know I wasn’t there when Jesus died, and I doubted the whole thing,” or whatever. They all kind of fell apart except for John, but he’s saying in this second reading that, when that experience of the transfiguration, seeing Jesus as light but mostly hearing the words of God saying, “This is my Beloved Son. Listen to who he is and what he’s doing,” and then he said, “It was like, in my heart, there was a sense of light coming, and it was ⎯” And he mentions the Morningstar. Now if you go to Morningstar, Morningstar’s really interesting. Morningstar is the planet Venus, planet of love and beauty, and when just about the sun is beginning to rise, so does Venus rise, and it’s bright, even though the sky is still very dark. It’s almost like he’s saying, “If that can happen to your heart, if you can have something, when it’s still dark, that is like a seed of a vision that we have to hold close to ourselves always that this thing that’s going on, this evolution of our planet, of our political systems, where it all is moving toward is something good.” If we don’t have that, I don’t know how you live in the disposition that we’re challenged to live in. Take that vision into your heart. Hold it in your heart. Know that light is always coming, and know that the darkness looks like it’s overtaking it. And then, if trusted through that darkness, there is the most amazing, amazing feeling, the enthusiasm, being filled with God that all things work together for the good of everyone. It’s essential to hold in your heart lest darkness overtake us. Amen.

Father, you have planted in our hearts a vision of your work, of your power, of our destiny. Help us always to stay focused on the vision that we’re moving in a direction that is giving life and beauty and truth, and we ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.