February Trinity I
(5th Sunday before
Easter)Karl Heinrich Bloch
Matthew 17:1-9
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 as 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."
6th Trinity I
March
13, 2022
Matthew 17:1-13
Dandelions rise in leaves and blossom in the warmth of the sun.
The blossoms form seed globes, a miniature cosmos. The wind disperses the seeds so that they fall to the earth in a different place; so that the cycle of their living growth and development on earth can continue and spread in a new season.
In the scene of the Transfiguration, Christ blossoms before the eyes of His three disciples. They begin to understand the cosmic, divine nature of Jesus, the Christ. They perceive how He converses with the two great luminaries of the Hebrew cosmos, Moses, the giver of the law, and Elijah, the prophet who gives voice to the divine.
Peter responds in the traditional way of his forefathers by offering to build external shrines for these spiritual beings. But the voice of the Father intervenes—‘This is my Son; listen to Him; take his words into your heart.’ (Matthew 17:5) And the three disciples fall to the ground.
Christ came to establish a new relationship between the beings of the spiritual world and human beings on earth. It is to be a relationship of conscious understanding, of conversation, rather than an adherence to the law and traditional procedure. So Jesus helps them up and continues to enlighten their understanding.
He
says to them that the being of Elijah, whom they had just seen conversing with
Him, had indeed already returned to earth to prepare for the coming of the
Messiah. He had been John the Baptist, who by then had already been put to
death. And Christ predicts that He Himself soon would be. With John the
Baptist, the
process of seeding this new relationship between heaven and earth
began; human beings dwelling in the cosmos return again to earth.