Bishop Anthony B. Taylor delivered this homily Feb. 24.
Several years ago I was visiting a friend who woke me up with frantic shouts from the other end of the house. At first I only heard him faintly, but when it registered, I ran to see what was the matter without stopping to put on my glasses. He had dropped a huge glass container onto his bare foot and now stood there marooned in the middle of the kitchen, afraid to move due to all the glass on the floor.
I ran and got my glasses, twin lenses that gave my vision sharper focus. There was blood everywhere — it looked like a crime scene. I got a broom, cleared a path to the door and took him to get stitches — which I could now do because with my glasses I could now see.
In today’s Gospel Peter, James and John hiked up a mountain to pray with Jesus and then they fell asleep. When they woke up they could not believe their eyes. Jesus was standing there transfigured, dazzlingly white, talking to Moses and Elijah.
For months Jesus had been teaching them about himself, but up to now they had only heard him faintly; now a voice from heaven proclaims: This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him.
For these disciples, Jesus’ transfiguration was like putting on a pair of glasses. Moses and Elijah were twin lenses through which they could see clearly that Jesus had come to fulfill the law and the prophets.
This experience on the Mount of Transfiguration parallels another, much sadder transfiguration which was to occur later on the Mount of Olives. Again they hiked up a mountain to pray and again Peter, James and John fell asleep. Jesus was transfigured again, but this time in agony rather than in glory: sweating blood as he contemplated the cup of suffering that would be the price of our salvation. Jesus woke them up just in time to hear the shouts of those who had come to arrest him.
At the first Transfiguration they heard Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus about the passage he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem, but still the disciples did not understand.
On Holy Thursday and Good Friday everything was a blur. They just stood there marooned in the middle of the garden, dumbfounded as the soldiers led him away. For these disciples Easter and especially Pentecost will be the twin lenses that finally enable them to see Jesus’ sacrifice for our salvation as it truly was.
And then they set out to proclaim this Good News with courage and conviction, which they could now do because thanks to Pentecost they can now see.
Today we have the first Transfiguration, our first glimpse of who Jesus really is: the Son of God, our savior, the Messiah. In a few weeks we will have the rest of the story. (1) The cost of our salvation: what Jesus suffered in order to save us, and (2) the cost of discipleship: the courage and conviction we will need in order to follow Jesus in our times of testing, no matter what happens, rather than desert him like the others did that evening when the mob came to arrest him.
One of the greatest blessings that you and I enjoy is that we can get to know Jesus as he really is — far better than the people who lived 2,000 years ago — because our vision is given sharper focus not only through the twin lenses of Easter and Pentecost, but also through the Church and the sacraments.
Jesus is present in the body of Christ living and active in the world, so we can see Jesus wherever Christians are, if we just put our glasses on. We can see him in the poor and needy: whatever you do to the least of your brothers and sisters you do to me.
He is especially present in the Eucharist at Mass, in the sacred Scriptures and in the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the Tabernacle. He is transfigured in every human being made in the image and likeness of God, and in all of creation, which bears the thumbprint of its creator, who then declared it to be good.
In these and many other ways, Jesus calls us to himself; he wants us to know him as he really is. At first we may hear him only faintly, like me when my friend shouted from the other end of the house. But if we respond, Jesus will help us to get to know him as he really is, and then give us the courage and conviction we need to be faithful to him in our times of testing, no matter what.
