3rd February Trinity 2008, Transfiguring Moment

4^th or 5^th February Trinity

Fra Angelico

(5^th Sunday before Easter)

Matthew 17: 1-13

After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James and led them together up a high mountain apart from the others.

There his appearance was transformed before them. His face shone bright as the sun, and his garments became white, shining bright as the light. And behold, there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, conversing in the spirit with Jesus.

And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be in this place. If you wish, I will build here three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and suddenly they heard a voice from the cloud that said, “This is my son, whom I love. In him, I am revealed. Hear him.”

When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces to the ground in awe and terror.

And Jesus approached them, and touching them said, “Rise, and do not fear.”

And raising their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them: “Tell no one what you have seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”

And the disciples asked him, “What is meant when the scribes say, ‘First Elijah must come again’?” He answered, “Elijah comes indeed, and prepares everything [restores all things]. But I say to you, Elijah has already come, and the people did not recognize him, but rather have done to him whatever they pleased. In the same way the Son of Man will suffer much at their hands.”

Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

3^rd Sunday February Trinity

February 17, 2008

Matthew 17: 1-13

Moses, He Qi

In the Gospel reading, Christ appears, sun-like and radiant. He is between two great figures, Moses and Elijah. Moses embodies the long and often painful journey of walking the earth in search of the land that is to be made holy. For all his ability to converse with his people’s guiding spirit, Moses is a man of the earth. His magical deeds, like striking rocks to release a spring, are earth mysteries. But in the end, he is only allowed to see the promised land, not to enter it.

Elijah, He Qi

Elijah is a prophet who appears here and there, unexpectedly. He works with weather; he raises the dead. His magic is of the airy realms. His own death is described as an ascension into heaven in a fiery chariot.

Christ’s conversation with them is about His path is between the two. Like Elijah, He shines with the fire and light of the sun. He too will rise out of death. Yet like Moses, He also walks a painful path on earth—toward Jerusalem. After this transfiguring moment, He again becomes ordinary. His is the truly human path. He walks down the mountain toward the Great Sacrifice.

The earthly human path is an often arduous path of suffering. But this suffering, rightly endured, leads us from our narrow self-absorption out into a compassionate connection with all beings and with the earth itself. Christ’s immense suffering solidifies His immense love, a love that encompasses the world. Although He would rise as Lord of the Spirit-Wind, He remains forever connected to the earth. He it is who helps us make the earth holy. He walks with us on earth for all future generations, through all future cycles of time.

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