St. Mark may have kept in his mind that who you hang out with defines who you are or at least tells about what kind of person you are. While Jesus has a reputation as a glutton, a drunkard, or a friend of tax collectors and sinners, he encounters the two most important figures in the Jewish tradition: Moses and Elijah. They represent the Law and the Prophets in the Jewish tradition respectively. Jesus in today’s gospel account is then described as the one who embodies the essential teaching of the law and fulfills what the prophets sought.
The law is not a set of Jewish rules and restrictions but the rule of life that is governed by love and compassion. The vision of the prophets, on the other hand, is the world that is driven by the culture of grace and love. In a way, the Law and the Prophets are not two unrelated things but interdependent of each other. Think of its relationship as justice and mercy taught (law) and lived out (prophets). Both Moses and Elijah are in the same boat of desiring the kingdom of God on earth, “thy will be done on earth as in heaven.” Reflecting on the life and person of Jesus, we see the law of God fulfilled in action gloriously revealed to Peter, James, and John that “...he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.” Traditionally we call this the transfiguration of Jesus. Then again, this transfiguration is not just about Jesus but also about us. Every gospel lesson we hear is to be applied to our lives. If Jesus is transfigured, we are to be transfigured, which is to say that Moses and Elijah must be met in ourselves as they are met in Jesus himself. We are to embody the law of love and the prophetic vision of God’s kingdom in our lives. Peter in the gospel story is simply terrified that he does not know what he’s supposed to do. Rather than trying to engage with Moses and Elijah, he takes the role of a bystander and says, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Peter cannot think of building his own dwelling place but only the ones for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. The only dwelling place he needs to build is his own in which he invites Moses, Elijah, and Jesus altogether. (Avoidance is not to be confused with humility.) How then can we be transfigured? How can our clothes, our faces, our whole selves become dazzling white? How can we build our inner dwelling place where we invite Moses, Elijah, and Jesus rather than becoming a bystander who never participates in the kingdom of God? The simplest way is through our union with God. When we’re united with God, we don’t have to try to make ourselves dazzling white. When we’re embraced in God, we’re transfigured, not by our own but by God’s unconditional love. To awaken or increase our sense of being in union with God would be the first step to our own transfiguration in Christ. We sit alone in silence, meditating on the words of the voice from the cloud of unknowing to us, “...the Beloved; listen!” Then we sit together in silence, lovingly looking at the person next to us and listening to the words of voice from the cloud that is introducing that person to us, “This is my daughter; the Beloved; listen to her!” or “This is my son; the Beloved; listen to him!” As we listen to the voice from the cloud of unknowing that we’re the beloved, we listen to the same voice from the cloud that says others are also the beloved. In Christ, we are transfigured and are transfiguring our neighbors and our world. "The sun shines not on us, but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love." ― John Muir |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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