Transfiguration of the Lord
We are now well into the month of August and for many of us the summer holidays are over and it is back to work. For others who have children the run up to school starting in September will shortly begin. As usual we are on a never ending circle of everything being the same but different as time never stays still. This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the transfiguration. In the Gospel story the disciples went to an out of the way place, a mountaintop. The Apostles are responding to the invitation of Jesus to come apart and rest for a while and mountains were the best place to get away from it all. On that mountain the disciples heard A loud voice from the heavens that told them, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
The Transfiguration was a grace-filled moment of clarity for the disciples. But it was only a moment along the journey of their lives as today the transfiguration is just a moment in the journey of our lives. The question for us today is do we listen to what Jesus is telling us here and now in 2023? We don’t have such a spectacular revelation as the disciples had on the mountain side but like them we come apart to our place of worship each Sunday and there we hear the voice of God the Father that asks to “Listen to him.” We listen to Jesus In the scriptures proclaimed for us and they tell the story of God’s forgiveness, compassion and unfaltering love for us. The voice we hear on this mountain directs us to be not afraid as we listen to Jesus, because in our world there are many competing voices that might lure us to ways of living other than the one Jesus calls us to follow.
Worshiping together as the community of believers gives us an opportunity to listen to the Word of God and what it is saying to us, and the word of God calls us to point out a number of things. The scriptures tell us that we need the presence of God in our lives and recognize how good he has been to each of us. Despite the dramatic way this message is revealed to the disciples they are consoled by the words of Jesus, ‘Do not be afraid.’ They look up into the eyes of Jesus and they see their friend. We need to let people know that just as His Love for us has no end it will be the same for them as it is for us as it was at the beginning for the apostles his first followers. We do not walk alone He is with us always, until the end of time. People do want to be with people who are happy within themselves.
We are Happy because we know that God is with us in all the stages of life. The disciples will have to delve deep into their well of memories after the death of Jesus, to recall those wonderful moments of intimacy with him, where he often said, ‘Courage, be not afraid.’ Let us take this refrain from today’s Gospel as we rejoice in the Lord who calls us to not be afraid as we remember that Jesus the Son of God is with us in our lives with all their ups and downs and we should listen to him as he guides us along the right paths that lead to salvation.
Fullerton T 