Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The word we hear today is wonderful. It is impossible for us to imagine what took place, but the gospel says that Jesus was totally transformed, changed, and changed completely. And that we are called also to be transfigured. This is conversion, a 180 degree turn. If we are going in one direction, then we must stop, turn in the opposite direction, and then go. It is a total change. This is what the Lord calls us to be in this Lent.
I really love this gospel because Our Lord takes his inner circle, his favorite threesome: Peter, James, and John, up a high mountain. They thought they were the best of the bunch but did not realize they were the worst. A bunch of bigmouths that blew a lot of hot air! Who will betray you, John asks at the Last Supper, tell me? Peter leaves him alone at the cross and is ashamed of Christ in front of a teenage girl and denied him.
And yet Jesus always takes them with him at the important moments of his public life. For instance, in the garden of Gethsemane the night of his arrest, the cure of Peter’s mother-in-law, and now the Transfiguration. They were the poorest, the weakest. The Lord takes the poorest always to help him. That is why he has called us, to help us, because he sees us as poor and weak. He sees us with serious suffering and also weak and for this reason he takes us and brings us to this high mountain. He says to us, I will be transfigured before you. The gospel says this, “He was transfigured before them.” He does this to show the poorer ones the resurrection. The other apostles don’t see this until much later, after he is buried. Only the poor ones saw this; this is a good news for us.
Jesus calls the poor ones, the needy ones, the worst sinners. That is why you are here today, to see this and to see how wonderful God is to you. This is not for your husband because you think he is a worse sinner than you. You might be surprised when you die and see your husband in heaven, and you are down below, or you see your mother-in-law also in heaven. We are very poor, very weak, brothers and sisters, and the Lord does something marvelous. He takes us with him and brings us up to a very high mountain and it is wonderful.
We all have very high mountains in our life. What does this mean? A big suffering or sadness or anxiety, perhaps, something in the marriage or a problem with the kids or an illness with a parent or whatever. You don’t know what to do, how to live your life. This high mountain could be that your son is taking drugs and is suffering a lot, or that you are getting old and feel alone. Some people are afraid to look in the mirror, balder, grayer, pains in the body, hair in all the wrong places. We will all die; we don’t know the day. Covid was good for us in that sense. It can be a very high mountain that you face, and you cannot accept what God is allowing in your life. This is what makes you suffer. The high mountain is the cross that we all have. Our Lord wants to take us there but often we want to escape. Jesus, says, no, enter it; I will show you my glory. I am the Risen Lord.
The cross we use for retreats and talks is very impressive. Christ is dead on most crosses but on this one he is risen, he is alive. There are rays behind his head that look like the sun because it is a glorious cross that shows the Risen Lord and this cross teaches us something wonderful. In the midst of your suffering, of your anguish, in the middle of the thing you don’t accept, on this very high mountain, that is greater than us, the Lord is Risen; his is transfigured, this is wonderful. And the good news is that you can rest in Him. That is why we often see Peter, James, and John asleep with Him. Jesus goes to Gethsemane to pray, and they fall asleep. In the transfiguration in the gospel of Luke they are asleep, and the brightness of the event wakes them up and they saw the Risen Lord.
It is a beautiful catechesis; what does it mean? When one is at peace, he can sleep. The psalm says, in peace I lie down and right away I fall asleep. If I am thinking and worrying that I don’t have money, I have this problem with one of the kids, how can he get into that better school, how can I pay for it, etc. Then you don’t sleep! Your sins, our sins, don’t allow us at times to sleep, we are not at peace. The apostles always knew that their lives were in his hands and therefore, they could rest. A Christian who trusts the Lord spiritually can sleep; he knows he is in the hands of the Lord. It is a nice phrase, but do you know that you are in the hands of the Lord? By the fact that you rest! When you put your life in the Lord, you rest.
We can say, Lord, take my life, do whatever you want with me. I accept whatever you want. To be a Christian is like giving Christ a blank check. Lord, take it, write whatever you want on it; it is already signed. I accept whatever you want from me. You gave me all that I have. A true Christian sees everything in his life as something absolutely great. All those high mountains, all of them are wonderful. Lord, you could not have done it any better than what you did. Even if I had no father, I see it was perfect because now I have discovered my true Father in heaven.
Little by little you will know what it is like to be on a high mountain, high on a cross, Jesus shows himself transfigured, changed, glorious. This is the resurrection. You can rest in the Lord and hear his voice: this is my beloved Son, my beloved Daughter. Listen to the Lord in the history he has done with you. Whatever has happened to you, the Lord allowed it and he wants to transform you into another Christ.
Sometimes when I see a brother who has faith, suddenly he is different. I see that he is a holy man/woman, a good man, he loves, he forgives, he has mercy, and he understands others. This man is Christ. You and I are called to be Christ in the middle of the world. Christ does not hate or is envious or jealous or lover of money or is unfaithful. We are called to be transfigured, to be a sign of the Risen Lord even with a sickness, a loneliness, old age. One can be a happy priest or a married woman for 50 years and be happy, not bitter, faithful, one can be chaste in an engagement. This is to be transfigured. You can be generous with your goods, not living only for material things, you can drive a lousy car and be happy. Enter the truth this Lent so that you see the Risen Lord this Easter.