I can’t help but reflect back on my life to see those experiences that have changed my life. Of course, the most dramatic experience was my marriage to the love of my life almost forty three years ago. But there were more experiences that took me a long time to understand.
I would not be surprised that if each of us takes a good look, to reflect on our lives up to the present, we will find times that bewildered us, which challenged us in trying to understand what just happened. The story of the Transfiguration takes us into the bewildered state of mind.
Seeing Moses, Elijah and Jesus huddled in the clouds is stunning to say the least for Peter, James and John. They hardly know what to do much less understand the significance of what they just witnessed. They are like children who have witnessed something so far beyond their daily life experience that they don’t have a clue as to how to even talk with one another about it.
When all was done and they were heading down the mountain Jesus does the disciples a huge favor. He tells them “don’t even think of trying to make sense of what you’ve just witnessed until after I have been raised from the dead. Upon reflection, what you have just witnessed here will begin to make sense.”
Upon reflection, this is how we typically find meaning as the sacred events in our lives unfold, not so much in the moment itself, but later, upon that reflection. Sometimes the moment itself seems too mundane or too intense, either too ordinary or too dramatic, to appreciate what really is happening at the time.
It is often hours, days, months, even years later that we reflect on an event and discern its meaning for our lives, seeing the presence of God in it as if it were the first time.
As I look back, as I reflect on those moments, especially up to the time of my ordination in the diaconate, I now see those moments, those life experiences that God placed in my life’s pathway. And now I see how my life was changed through those life experiences. I could now see clearly how God sometimes works through our weaknesses, through our failures, that God sometimes takes what we under-value and values that the most.
The second reading today from 2 Timothy is so significant in looking at our life’s journey. “Beloved, bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” It also says; “According to God’ own design.” God has extraordinary ways to get our attention in order to teach us what really matters in life. As I took a look at my life that led to ordination, I could see God was teaching me to have a generous heart, what it means to have patience. (I am still to this day working on that one
When the Spirit of God breaks into our lives we often do not recognize it for what it is. We call it a coincidence, or we say it was a serendipitous moment or we say we got goose bumps. We say this because at the time we did not understand just like the disciples on that mountain top did not understand. It is sometimes upon reflection that we see the hand of God upon our decisions, upon reflection that we see the presence of God in our dreams, that we see the Spirit of God in our relationships.
Peter, James, and John have come to know Jesus as an outstanding teacher, a role model to follow, a healer, a loving and compassionate presence. But on that day of Transfiguration up on that mountain top, they witnessed not only Jesus’ humanity but especially His divinity.
So, there you have Moses and Elijah, and the Transfigured Jesus-as the sight of these three spiritual giants fade into the sunset, the three disciples are left standing there like the townspeople in the show “The Lone Ranger” wondering, “Who is this masked man?” Peter, James and John are left wondering “who is this teacher of ours?”
In the closing moments of each episode of the show, someone in the crowd cried out. “That’s the Lone Ranger.” Up on that mountain top that day, a voice from heaven cries out, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.”
The disciples are still having a hard time grasping the meaning of all that just happened. It is only later, upon reflection after Easter, after the Resurrection, after the empty tomb, after He appears to them in a resurrected body that they begin to put all the pieces together. It is upon reflection that they see what they had not seen, that they now understand what they had not understood, that God had actually became a human being, that God became vulnerable in order to demonstrate the power of love.
When we reflect on our life’s experiences we discover the unmistakable thumb prints of God. This is one way that we can honor our journey through Lent; to carve out some time each day, each week for reflecting on those events which at the time seemed mundane but upon that reflection they become sacred experiences. We reflect not to give up but to surrender to Jesus. “Listen to Him.” May the Spirit of God Be your guide on your journey through Lent.