This second week of Lent, as we do every year, we consider the Transfiguration. To be sure, this is a stunning account of Jesus briefly revealing his Divinity to Peter, James, and John which results in the inevitable questions which annually emerge. Questions like, “Why did Jesus take only those particular three followers with him?” and “What was the purpose of this event?” and all the other nagging queries for which we intensely crave answers. But there is another perspective we can explore and that is the purpose for this week’s reflection. This brief glimpse of the Lord’s incomparable majesty and power puts into sharp focus for us Jesus’ humanity.
Every time I read one of the Gospel Transfiguration accounts or hear it proclaimed I yet again am astounded that Jesus – God, the Second Person of the Trinity consented to veil the incredible power and authority we see in this passage and don the weakness and fragility of humanity. I cannot help but recall that Jesus, a Person without beginning or end just like the Father and Holy Spirit and who was there with Them at the moment of creation freely offered to leave that community of love, for that is truly what the Trinity is, and descend to a dusty, dirty, nondescript, unimportant, minute corner of the world he created. That endlessly amazes me.
What was it like for God to have the lived experience of putting on a human body? An omnipotent Deity would certainly know everything, but I cannot help but think the child Jesus gazed at his fingers and slowly flexed them feeling the dance of bone, tendon, muscle, and skin exhibited in that little gesture and appreciatively think, “yes, we did excellent work at creation”.
Just as I can only fully experience the wonder of a brightly lit world after I have tried to function in total darkness, those three disciples can only appreciate the full impactful dimensions of Jesus’ humanity after having seen his glory... his glorified body. Don’t you join my wondering if this mountaintop occasion gave Peter the strength to be our first pope, if it emboldened James as the first martyr for the faith, and if it fortified John to care for the Blessed Mother and write his Gospel, letters, and Revelation? But there is yet something more to ponder.
Sacred Scripture and the Church teach us that our souls will only join our resurrected bodies after Jesus’ second coming so how is it that both Moses and Elijah were there in full corporeal splendor? Elijah, we recall left this earth in a fiery chariot witnessed by Elisha but Moses? God is outside of time without beginning or end... there is no past or present, just a now. So, perhaps at that moment, the boundaries of linear time as we live it were blurred and Moses regained his body through Jesus’ second coming just as Mary was immaculately conceived through the graces of Jesus’ resurrection. But any explanation attempt is only a human trying to articulate the Divine mystery. What meaning does all of this have for you and me today? Revisiting the Transfiguration reminds me of Jesus’ dual humanity and divinity and helps me to remain mindful that I can only have even a basic understanding of and love for God because he walked the earth. That keeps us strong and committed when we have so much more to learn, do, and repent of in the remainder of this season which in turn is simply one more chance to experience ‘boot-camp’ that prepares us for the rest of our earthly days. The Transfiguration and the coming celebration of the Resurrection have caused me over the years to drop one letter of the Angelus Prayer. You remember it. One portion says, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” but that phrase will forever be for me, “and DWELLS among us”. Let’s all think about that.
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