Last week we encountered the human Jesus alone in the desert. And like any human being he experienced all the pain and suffering you would expect to find when you spend forty days of isolation in the wilderness.
Today we encounter Jesus on the mountaintop miraculously transfigured into his divine nature. His body and clothes have become brilliantly white and he speaks face to face with the two great witnesses of the Law and the Prophets, Moses and Elijah.
Also present with Jesus is Peter, James and John. Some biblical scholars theorize that these three disciples are there for two reasons:
1. He wanted to reveal his divinity to them.
2. He wanted to give them the strength they would need to bear the
pain of his Passion and Death. And he knew that their strength in
overcoming their fear and timidity would be found in prayer.
Prayer: The Secret to Living Lent
In each liturgical season in our church God sends us the graces we need in order to keep growing in wisdom and holiness.
But these graces don’t benefit us automatically the way sunlight benefits plants. Instead, we have to purposefully take them into our souls. So how can we bathe in the supernatural sunlight that will make us grow, make us better, make us change, during this season of Lent?
The Church reminds us of the most effective method we have for drinking in all the graces God wants to give us during this Lent. In a word, prayer.
Today’s first reading tells us that “The Lord God took Abram outside...” and had a conversation with him. That’s prayer.
The Psalm gives us an example of King David’s prayer in the face of danger, “Your presence, O Lord, I seek. Hide not your face from me...”
St Paul, in the second reading, reminds the Christians in Philippi that while most people occupy their minds with earthy things, our citizenship is in heaven. In other words, our attention is on God. That’s prayer.
Finally, in the Gospel, Jesus leads his three closest disciples away from the hustle and bustle of life, up to the top of a high mountain, where he can be alone with them, and give them a lesson in prayer.
You need to ask yourselves, “Is my prayer life in good shape? Has it improved in the last year, the last ten years?” If you’re out of shape in the prayer department, then you won’t be able to take in the graces God wants to give you.
Our personal transfiguration begins in prayer
In prayer, we hear the God, and we contemplate his face. Once you make the effort to be with him in prayer every day, you’ll soon discover that you can’t function without it. That’s why you need to create the necessary conditions to be able to hear his voice and to contemplate his face.
Modern society finds this notion ridiculous, but the pursuit of material things will leave your soul feeling empty; fun things only distract us for a few minutes, but afterwards they make us thirsty, hungry and weary. When Jesus climbed to the top of Mount Tabor with his disciples, he went away from the noise of the town and took them to a place of silence and seclusion.
Lent is an opportunity for us to listen and to con-template. God told the people of Israel, “Seek my face.” Today, that face is made visible in the person of Jesus and in the sacraments he gave us. We can also see his face in the elderly, the sick, the poor, the marginalized, and in our enemies. Finding God is the essence of our Christian vocation. That same voice tells us on Mt Tabor, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.”
We come to church every Sunday not to make three tents and stay here peacefully without doing anything, as Peter wanted to do. Instead, we come to nourish ourselves with the God’s Word and with the Eucharist, and then go out into the world with the joyful light of those who have contemplated the face of God.
Do we already contemplate his face in prayer? Have we already been transfigured into Christ? Today could be the day this miracle happens in your lives. It all depends on your willingness to enter into the mystery and the power of prayer.