February Trinity
(5th Sunday before Easter)
Matthew 17: 1-13
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| Transfiguration, by Theophanes the Greek, Wiki Commons |
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.
February Trinity
(5th Sunday before Easter)
Matthew 17: 1-13
Here in the west one can look out over the ocean from the
mountains. Later in the day one can gaze out upon a sea of light so white, so
piercingly bright that one wonders how one can look at it at all. The living
waters shine like the sun.
In our lives, too, there are events and moments that are
piercing; they may be moments of happiness or of pain; but they remain in our
memories forever. In Jesus’ life this is one of those moments. On the
mountaintop, Christ, the great being of the Sun, descends so far into him that
his living body becomes ‘shining bright as the light.’
With him are two witness in the spirit, Moses and Elijah.
They are conversing with him about his coming death. And the three earthly
witnesses, Peter, James and John, perceive this living, light-filled,
light-emanating body in awe. And further the Light is deepened into the voice
of Love; they hear the voice of the loving Father of All. He claims Christ
Jesus as His son, the revelation of the Father’s own being. The Father’s Love
reveals itself in the living light form of a divine human being. Christ, ‘the
son born in eternity’, reveals the Father’s light and love on earth. The poet
says:
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| Transfiguration, Lewis Bowman |
…we hear the great
seas traveling
underground,
giving themselves up
with tongue of water
that sing the earth open.
They have journeyed through the
graveyards
of our loved ones,
turning in their grave
to carry the stories of life to
air.
….
We have stories
as old as the great seas
breaking through the chest,
flying out the mouth,
…
all the oceans we contain
coming to light. *
* Linda Hogan, “To Light”, in Seeing Through the Sun
