Day 12: Transformed

In today’s Gospel (Luke 9:28b-36), Jesus is Transfigured before Peter, John, and James. Could these three have ever imagined that the Jesus who walked up the mountain with them would soon transform before their eyes?

The divinity of Jesus was revealed as his face and clothes changed. And these three almost missed it.

Peter and company, Luke tells us, fell asleep but awoke to find Jesus conversing with Moses and Elijah. It is as if they were blind to the miraculous, until they weren’t.

As Jesus journeyed toward the cross, which started when his ministry of healing and radical love began, many eyes could not see the God in their midst. They couldn’t see because they were boxed in by their limitations. They, too, were asleep.

I wonder, if Jesus, in this moment, found confirmation of what was stirring in his heart from his earliest days of consciousness. I also wonder, what did the prophets say to him? What did Jesus feel, especially as the voice of God said, “this is my chosen Son, listen to him.” Perhaps this is all worth a separate reflection for a future date.

For now, let’s return to those who best resemble us- the followers who sometimes miss the point.

What did the disciples feel as they experienced God in their midst? I wonder how they must have recalled this moment years later as a moment of revelation and confirmation.

The good news is that our God- in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- appears in our midst quite often- while we, like Peter, John, and James, are asleep. We, like those bound by politics, religion, and pride, miss the miraculous in the name of our own EGO and righteousness.

Let us, this Lent, not be like Peter, John, and James, and instead discover the God in our midst without the limitations and all that keeps us from what would lead to our own transformation.