Second Sunday of Lent, Year B: Genesis 22:1-2, 9a,10-13, 15-18; Romans 8:31b-34; Mark 9:2-20
Although this Gospel describes a very extraordinary spiritual experience, like all spiritual breakthroughs, it needs to be carefully considered, reconsidered and digested over time.
Look at Peter’s knee-jerk reaction: he would box Jesus, Moses and Elijah into individual tents to capture the moment. He’s trying to prolong the experience and reduce it to apprehensible terms. Evidently, he’s quite wrong: He hardly knew what to say, we are told, they were so terrified.
Isn’t it significant that Peter did nothing to suppress knowledge of his reaction but let it be preserved as part of the tradition? Perhaps he knew it would be helpful to us to see his mistake, so we could admit our own mistakes if, for example, we try to collect spiritual experiences like trophies. No, we need to carry them in our hearts rathe than display them, to carefully explore their impact and meaning and ultimately employ them as stepping stones on our way to God, rather than wearing them as an identity.
They are not ours to own, but fuel to move us forward. Do you hoard a full tank of gas in a permanently parked car, or do you turn on the ignition and use it to go somewhere?
Immediately after his Transfiguration, Jesus refers to his death and resurrection: that is where he is going! Peter, James and John certainly don’t want to lose him; but the theophany they’ve witnessed reveals the deeper significance of his death. It reveals God’s engagement in the tragedy, a long, unfolding relationship with God’s people through their prophets, which does not end in the tomb but leads to glory.
Aren’t Jesus’ passion and death the mortal birth pangs of eternal life not only for Jesus of Nazareth, but through Jesus the Christ, for each of us?