A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Jesus took Peter, John, and James, and, with them went up into a mountain to pray. While he was praying, his face changed in appearance, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly, two men were talking with Jesus, Moses and Elijah. They appeared in glory and spoke of his passage, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem.
We don't know what they said, though. Peter and those with him had fallen into a deep sleep, but awakening, they saw Christ's glory and likewise saw the two men who were standing with Jesus. When these were leaving, Peter said to Jesus, master, how good it is for us to be here. Let us set up three booths, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He did not know really what he was saying.
That's pretty normal for Peter. While Peter was still speaking, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and the disciples grew fearful as the others entered into it. That is Elijah and Moses. Then from the cloud came a voice which said, this is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him.
When the voice fell silent, Jesus was there alone. The disciples kept quiet, telling nothing of what they had seen at that time to anyone. And this is the gospel of the lord. Christ. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
There is a tremendous difference between the religious life of a Catholic and of a Protestant. Now I'm using the word Protestant there in its technical meaning following Luther and Calvin and Company, but not in the sense of the fundamentalists because they don't have any conception of church. You see, the heart of Catholic worship is Jesus Christ who became man, was truly man, and stayed with us in the living voice of a living church. And our worship, our lives in their entirety should be lived within that atmosphere, in that climate, in that transformation of being a member of Christ's living church, not a book. Not a book.
The church gives us the bible. The bible doesn't give us the church. And this is a this is a a completely unique conception, and this ties in with the mass. That Christ is the priest, the victim, just and the priest who is actually saying the mass is is speaking in his name. The the at the consecration, the priest doesn't say this is the body of Christ.
He says, this is my body. Think of this when you think in terms of women priests. Because Christ was truly a man. He had the sex. And we and the doctrine of the Catholic church is that Christ is really, truly, and physically present in the Eucharist.
Now you say, what has this to do with the transfiguration? It has everything to do with the transfiguration. I don't understand all about this. For example, why did the disciples keep quiet afterwards? Why didn't they go around telling everybody what they'd seen?
I don't know. It's very mysterious. But the point is this, this is an occasion of joy. Here we see Christ in all his glory, his church, and our lord. And good old Peter, he always comes through, you know.
It says here he didn't know didn't know what he was talking about. And that's not unusual for Peter, you know. He's just a good guy, yet he he was the rock. The rock. Imagine Peter being the rock to build a church on, to build anything on.
Now just think of this. What happens on Calvary? You don't hear anybody saying, lord, it is good for us to be here. You don't hear anybody saying anything except Christ and the good thief. No one wants to stay on Calvary, but Christ was in both places.
And just as really in one as as really in the other. And let me tell you, it's so much easier to see Christ in the transfiguration. That's what we expect Christ to be, don't we? He's the son of god. He's the lord of the universe.
The the whole universe is the product of his own created power. The whole blooming universe. That's what we expect of the son of god. God is immense. Nobody can even make one single proposition about God that is univocally true.
Not a single proposition. You can't even say God is and and be speaking univocally. That's what we expect. It's glorious, and it's so easy to follow Christ in his transfiguration in our lives. When when you see, we're supposed to be walking with Christ.
We're supposed to be carrying the burden of life with Christ. This is what it is to be a Christian, to be with Christ, to be with him in the living in the living power, the operational activity of a living church. Very different story when we're on Calvary. How in the name of heavens can anyone look at a cross? It's like looking at an electric chair.
It's like looking at a gallows. It's like looking at a headsman's axe and saying, there is god. That's hard to take. Yet look at the cross. And we are eliminating the cross.
I had a wedding not so long well, a few years ago. We had a revolving altar. It was on a on a defense camp someplace in the world, and we had a revolving altar. So when we turned it around for the Catholic worship, we had a big beautiful crucifix. Somebody in the wedding party wanted me to turn it around to have a crucifix without Christ on it.
That's like having what? It's like having the axe which beheaded the saint. What matters on Calvary is Christ, not the cross. That the son of god is hanging on the cross. That's what matters.
That's the whole thing, that Christ died for me. But who can believe it? Who can believe it? Faith is a gift. Don't forget it.
But this is what a Christian believes, that the son of God became man and died on the cross. And that's just as real. And listen, it's just as revealing of God's magnificence, of God's majesty, as the transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor, as we say. We don't know that for sure. But in every Christian life, you've got to hold both of these together.
There are going to be moments in everybody's life, I don't care what it is, as long as they have a certain amount of consciousness, that there will be periods of transfiguration, that we will feel close to Christ, and we will say with Peter, Lord, it is good for us to be here. But it takes tremendous faith to say that when you're on Calvary and hanging on a cross. And we all know that that's part of life. It begins with a cross, and believe me, life ends with one. And yet we have to see Christ in both cases, in both circumstances, in both instances.
He is not less real in one than in the other. The only difference is it's so much harder to see him. There's where our faith comes in. There's where we have to say, my lord and my god. My lord and my god.
In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.