A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Mark. Jesus took Peter, James, and John off by themselves but along with himself, and led them up to a high mountain. And there he was transfigured before their eyes, and his clothes became dazzling white, whiter than the work of any bleacher could make them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses. The two were in conversation with Jesus.
Then Peter spoke to Jesus. Rabbi, how good it is for us to be here. Let us erect three booths on this site, one for yourself, one for Moses, and then one for Elijah. He hardly knew what to say, actually. That never stopped Peter, of course, from saying something.
For they were all overcome with all. Then a cloud came, overshadowing them, and out of the cloud came a voice. This is my son, my beloved. Listen to him. Then suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them, but only Jesus.
As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus strictly enjoined them not to tell anyone what they had seen before the son of man had risen from the dead. They kept this word of his to themselves, though they continue to discuss what to rise from the dead meant. They didn't understand that. So this is the gospel of the lord. Christ.
The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. This is a very intriguing episode in our lord's life. What happened there? Who knows?
We'll have to wait a little while before we have the participants and get a straightforward account and interpretation of what actually happened. But something very odd happened, very startling, and very satisfactory. It was so completely satisfactory that Peter and his companions, they said, let's stay here. Here's where we wanna here's where we wanna live. We don't wanna go back to to that turmoil world, that world where everything is topsy-turvy and confused and challenging and dangerous.
We wanna stay here where everything is beautiful and light and joy, and and here we've got it all together. Got the prophets of the old testament talking with Jesus. Why not stay there? Whenever I read this, there's one little word that strikes me between the eyes, and that little old word is only. Only.
Because when when all of this is over, whatever happened, it was it was a it was certainly some kind of a very illuminating, brilliant experience. When it's all over, the disciples are left alone with only Jesus. Only Jesus. Moses and Elijah gone as if they were so great. Well, they were great.
But that little word only, and that's in the in the Greek, there's a very important thing. In other words, the disciples felt let down as anyone does who come who comes down from the mountain. Who comes down from the mountain. Now, most people, ninety nine and ninety nine one hundredths percent people, have a few peaks in their lives. It's not all valleys.
It's not all gloom and doom. And all of us, without any exception, would like to stay where it's joyful, where it's bright, where everything is when everything is going well. Then it's easy to pray God and sing hallelujahs. That's the easiest thing in the world. We have it right here.
What I love about this is the humanity of of Peter, you know. They're so downright like ourselves, or we're like them. I don't care how you say it. Wouldn't we all wanna stay up on the mountain. Who wants to go down into the valley of death?
But we'll go. We'll go. Because while every life, I say every life, I've I've switched from that 1%, has its peaks, has its days of transfiguration. When God seems near, or whatever you call God, let's not get tangled up in words, when you are almost experiencing something immense. All I say when this happens, beware.
It may mean that you just had a good dinner. But the thing is, we all have these peaks, but we all have the valleys. And unfortunately, they often turn out to be valleys of death, and doom, and gloom. And Jesus seems very, very far away. And why are you startled when that happens?
Why are you astonished? That's normal. Look at the cross. Are you better than Jesus? When when things were at their worst, what did he remember, this is God on the cross speaking.
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? That's Christ speaking from the cross. Are we better than he? So how do we handle these valleys of doom and gloom when we feel completely abandoned? By everything, by everybody.
They don't happen often, thank goodness, thank God. This is tough stuff, this is hard to bear, And some people fold up under it. And let me tell you, plenty of people fold up on the mount of transfiguration too. And I'll tell you why. Because they think that that is normal, that that's what they ought to have all the time.
Everything should be light and joy and hallelujahs and peace and tranquility, you know, and love and benevolence, when for the most part, life is none of that. No. For the most part. It's none of that, only on occasion. And thank God for the occasions, we need that.
We need to see a little glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel once in a while, and hope it's not the locomotive coming down on us. This is life. This is normal. It was Saint John of the Cross who wrote The Dark Night of the Soul, a saint. You see, we we have a very false impression.
We we we are really old testament people, and and I'm by we, I mean we. It's a human to think that if I'm a good person, if I'm trying to do what God wants me to do, then the least God could do would be to do his part and keep me up on that mountain. But that's not the way it works at all. Just read some of the Psalms. I forget what saint it was, but she turned to God and said, look, if that's the way you treat your friends, who needs enemies?
And this is this is the way life is. We cannot live normally, permanently on the mountain of transfiguration. We come down and go into the city where we belong. That's where we have to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, not with security. Our only security is Jesus Christ because where we are, he has been.
He has been. I don't care how deep that valley that you're struggling in is. He's been there. My god. My god.
Why have you abandoned me? They are fearful, which you just think about that sometime. Here's the son of god speaking. And so let's let's look at life as it as it is. That's a difficult thing to do.
And let us look at life as it can be expected to be for a good, fervent, loyal Christian. It's not going to be any better than the life of Jesus Christ, because we call ourselves Christians, which means a follower of Christ. So the life we can expect is his life, because the closer we come to him, the closer will be our life, reflecting his. That's simply good logic. And there's where we need to remind ourselves that that is life to be with him.
Not to be up on that mountain, but to be with Jesus. Whether it's up on the mountain or down in the valley of gloom and doom, if we're with Jesus, there is light at the end of the tunnel. In the name of the father, and the son, and holy spirit. Amen.