Gospel text for The Transfiguration 14 February 2021

Mark 9:2-9        Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Reflection      For years  I read  Mark’s gospel text with my eyes darkened by Jesus’ glowing religious experience. The image of Jesus’ changed face and dazzling clothes blinded me to Peter, James and John’s phenomenal mountain top experience. I was swept away by Jesus’ special status, the chosen one with direct access to the wisdom of the prophets.  Like Peter, I wanted to build a church around Jesus, proclaim a glow in the dark theology and make Jesus separate, sovereign and special. I struggled to capture Jesus with words and creeds, doctrine and denominational politics. But something was missing. 

Thankfully the cloud of unknowing finally descended upon me and opened my eyes to recognize Peter, James and John’s indubitable religious experience and finally hear the voice from the cloud… “Listen to him.” It did NOT say "look at him."

One of my favorite contemporary scripture scholars is the Jesuit Dr. Sandra Schneiders. Pointing to the poignancy of listening Schneiders writes, “To see another is to encounter a person’s “surface,” to “stand before” or “be in the presence of” another. But speaking/hearing (the one always implies the other) is a mutual entering into interiority. By speaking/hearing, the two persons open the walls surrounding their inner selves, and their heretofore incommunicable experiences are put in common. They both now live in a different world, a world they share, rather than in two separate worlds (Schneiders, 34-35)*.

Listening to Jesus means opening ourselves to participate in his incommunicable experience and allowing ourselves to be transfigured. This prospect is daunting. No wonder we would rather keep our eyes glued to him and distract ourselves with questions; “How did his face actually change? If there was a video camera on top of the mountain would we see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah? Does this glowing moment mean Jesus is more than merely human? What is the true nature of Jesus anyway? Is he of the same substance of God, or us, or something else? How shall we preserve and ritualize this moment? What type of organization shall we establish to insure that everyone believes and says the correct things about Jesus? Who decides what the correct things are? 

Preoccupied with these questions we forget to ‘listen to him,’ to go beneath a surface encounter with the historical person Jesus and experience the transfiguring intimacy of communion. No doubt this is the defensive work of our egos that know if we “open the walls surrounding (our) inner selves” and share our interior experiences, we will be changed. In Schneiders words again, “…and live in a different world, a world (we) share, rather than in two separate worlds.” 

If we dare to breach our walls, with open hearts and open minds we not only stand at the top of the mountain in the presence of God but we also step into the sphere of interior reality in which we are changed into more beautiful, radiant revelations of the Spiritual world we inhabit by faith. 

The tumultuous tide of our times assures us, the cloud of unknowing is upon us. From our shadowy depths we hear, “Listen, listen to Him.” Are you listening?

* Schneiders, Sandra  The Revelatory Text: Interpreting The New testament as Sacred Scripture, 1999.

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