Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John, notice Peter was one of the three, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. Jesus was transfigured before their eyes. His face became as dazzling as the sun. His clothes radiant as light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared conversing with him.
Upon this, Peter said to Jesus, Lord, how good it is for us to be here. With your permission, I will erect three booths, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Peter was still speaking when suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them. Out of the cloud came a voice. This is my beloved son on whom my favor rests.
Listen to him. When they heard this, the disciples fell forward on the ground, overcome by fear. Jesus came toward them and laying his hand on them said, get up. Don't be afraid. When they looked up, they saw no one but Jesus alone.
As they were coming down the mountainside, Jesus commanded them, do not tell anyone of the vision until the son of man rises from the dead. And this is the gospel of the lord. Praise you lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen.
Just as Peter was so exuberantly, enthusiastically, loud mouthed in his profession of loyalty to Jesus at the last supper, telling our lord without any hesitation, of course, that even if it meant he would die, he would stick with him. And then on this occasion, who speaks up? Who wants to stay up on the mountain of transfiguration? It's Peter, good old Peter. He wants to put up three buildings, make the thing a permanent arrangement.
He wants to be up on that mountain of transfiguration for keeps. Well, you know what happened within hours of those those heroic protestations of loyalty to Jesus. Three times he denied that he even knew Jesus. Judas never did that. And then what happens when they come down from the mountain, when this wonderful scene is over?
How was Peter impressed? Well, one thing is sure, he didn't believe in the he did not get out of this incident. He did not get out of it at this time the truth of the reality of Jesus, the son of God, and that his mission was not of this world, not to restore the physical worldly kingdom of Israel, that his kingdom was not of this world, that he was truly the Messiah, the son of God, Jesus Christ. That only came after the passion in the garden, the crucifixion on the cross, and the resurrection, after all of those things. Not one of the disciples before the resurrection had a proper conception of who Jesus Christ was.
Putting it positively, they had a very gross misconception of Jesus and what he stood for and what his kingdom was. And that's precisely where we fit in. What is our conception of the kingdom of Jesus Christ? What is our conception of Jesus himself? Was he a first rate social worker?
Did he come to reform the sociological and political systems of the world? Did he come to make this world a better place to live in? Did he come to make this world a more comfortable place to live in by a better economic system? Since he was God, he probably would have known at least as much as most of the economists know today when you can't get three to agree on anything. Did he do any of those things?
And the answer is he did not do any of them, not a one of them. And as I've said, it's alright to say that Jesus cured the sick, he fed the hungry. How many did he do it to? A handful. And that's even an exaggeration.
The tiniest part of a tiniest part of a tiniest part, and only for a very brief period of time, at the most three years. That is in his own person. Now I'm not saying he didn't bring principles that implicitly are involved in his great in his good message. I know all of that. I'm only saying what did he do?
Did he where was his kingdom and who was he? You see, we all well, I I think we can say all of us. At some times in our life, may not and there are not many times, we all are also on this mountain. We have all experienced this, more or less. That is in the intensity of the emotional, because that's what it is, the intensity of the experience and their frequency.
I believe it's safe to say that it is not frequent for most people. The intensity of it varies enormously. But most of us have something of it sometime in our life, and it stands out. And there's nothing wrong with that. We need it.
I'm not at all opposed to bringing the whole man into the worship of God, and that means our emotions, sentiments, our our feelings. We are a totality of a being. And while it's it's not recorded that our lord even as much as smiled, we it is recorded that Jesus wept, at least on two occasions. He was not above the human emotions, and neither are we. But you see, the great mistake is to think too much of it, to make too much of it, and above all, to set it up as a norm.
That's the worst of the whole business, to think that that is the the way our religious life should be. Because for one certain fact, it is not that way. How much of our Lord's life was lived on the Mountain Of Transfiguration? Not nearly as much as was lived on Calvary. And Calvary was only a small fraction of our Lord's short life.
What I'm saying is that the the troughs, the low levels of our religious life, of our spiritual vitality, and the peaks of our religious life and spiritual vitality. They're rare and they're fleeting for the most part. For the most part. For the most part, our lives are lived in a rather boring kind of existence. A humdrum monotony which is more or less monotonous, more or less boring.
It's not lived on the peaks. It's not lived down in the troughs of the waves. But you see, the great danger is that we have a remembrance of these moments of transfiguration. Now I'm not pulling upon my imagination, and I'm not talking ancient history. I'm talking almost present tense.
People will say, I try to pray, but I don't get anything out of it. I don't have any feeling about it. Well, why don't you? Well, I can remember when as a child I used to go into church after school. I can remember when I was growing up how I could turn to God and find God every place.
Fine. I congratulate you. But is that the standard? Is that the norm? Is are you do you think that your spiritual life should be lived on that peak of intensity?
Well, I can assure you it will not be. And it's such a mistake to think that it ought to be, and the worst mistake of that mistake is to think you're not getting any place, that you're in the wrong pew, that you're failing God, that you're not trying enough because you do not find yourself on that mountain of transfiguration. Notice our blessed lord did not in the least encourage Peter to start building any kind of tents or or huts or anything. All that happened was all that happened was that it all came to an abrupt end, and all they saw now was Jesus. All they saw was Jesus alone.
Now who is this Jesus you see alone? You have had your mountains. You have had those peaks, and I hope you'll have some more of this religious intensity. It can come with all kinds of things, the birth of a child, marriage, going to someone else's marriage, at a funeral even. It can come in all kinds of ways.
It can come when you're driving your car under very adverse circumstances when you will have an intense consciousness of God's immensity and your oneness with him. That's wonderful. But don't think it is the norm. It isn't the norm. The norm is to see Jesus alone.
And that's the Jesus who was alone on Calvary. That's the Jesus who said, take up your cross daily and follow me. Notice that word daily. Daily. That's the tough word.
Most human beings can become heroes or heroines if it's done quickly, if you don't have to think about it too much, if it's not too long and enduring, if it isn't too boring. That word boring, you know, is is so much on the words of our young people today. I guess a lot of the time that the disciples were with Jesus, they had boring times because the Mount Of Transfiguration was a transient, quickly passing moment. There was nothing permanent about it. It was fleeting.
It was great while it lasted. Notice it's Peter in this first reading how he refers to it. He was there. It was not the stuff of being the follower of Jesus Christ. The stuff of following Jesus Christ is just what he said it was, daily to take up his cross and follow him, and we will find it sweet and his burden light.
The name of the