Wednesday, March 19, 2014

5th February Trinity 2009, Sun-Orb Sings


4th or 5th February Trinity
Fra Angelico
(5th 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.
  
Archangel Raphael, Woloschina
5th February Trinity
March 8, 2009
Matthew 17: 1-13

The sun sings. Most of us do not hear the song; it is what the ancients called the harmonious music of the spheres. The poet Goethe, in Faust, has the archangel Raphael say:
The sun-orb sings, in emulation,
Mid brother spheres, in his ancient round:
His path predestined through Creation
He ends with step of thunder-sound.[1]

Today’s Gospel reading enables us to see the sun orb singing. Christ descended from the Cosmos. He is the great out-pouring Spirit of the Sun, which creates life. He now shines in radiance from within Jesus. Two others, like planets circling, are with Him; one is Moses, the great leader of his people down into spheres of earth. The other is Elijah, the prophet, half angel, who works in sun, wind and air. They are singing together with Christ, singing past, present and future into existence. A fourth voice joins them from a cloud, the voice of the Father. ‘This is the son of my love; My love is visible in Him. Hear Him; take him in.’ Matthew 17: 5 . Goethe continues:

He ends with step of thunder-sound.
The angels from his visage splendid
Draw power, whose measure none can say;
The lofty worlds, uncomprehended,
Are bright as on the earliest day.

We have come to a time in human history when we must begin to hear, to see, and to understand what happens next, long ago, and now. Next Sunday Passiontide begins. Today’s reading is a wake-up call—keep your eyes and ears and hearts open. Watch what happens next. Christ sings to us: ‘Rise, and do not be afraid.’ Matthew 17:7 Christ comes down the mountain, down from the heights, and walks the path toward his own transformation.

Goethe’s poem goes on; and now it is the archangel Michael who speaks:

Archangel Michael, Woloschina
And rival storms abroad are surging
From seas to land, and land to sea.
A chain of deepest action forging
Round all, in wrathful energy.
There flames a desolation, blazing
Before the Thunder's crashing way:
Yet, Lord, thy messengers are praising
The gentle movement of Thy day.

Around us there is desolation and frantic action. On Good Friday the sun’s light will go out. All will be wrapped in the silence of the tomb. But on Easter Sunday, the joyful singing light of a thousand suns will burst forth. The light will scatter and each human being will receive a spark of new life. Will we see it? Hear it? Will we understand? Will the archangels sing:

Though still by them uncomprehended,
From these the angels draw their power,
And all Thy works, sublime and splendid,
Are bright as in Creation's hour.






[1] Goethe’s Faust, Part 1