Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent - February 28, 2010

I find this gospel account of the Transfiguration to be exceedingly intriguing because when you analyze it, it’s basically a story not only about life, but of invitation. Let us take the elements of the story that we know so well. There is a transfiguration – the sudden vision, the great glory. All of us have those moments. There’s the wedding day. There’s the first job. There’s the first adventure. There’s the first home, the first child. And all of these things are there in their splendid form. And they shine forth with joy. Just try to remember all the visions you have had.
Just try to remember – those of you who are married – your wedding day. Try to remember your first house that you bought. The first car. The first job. The first paycheck. And there is something transfigured, and life is fulfilled, and there it is, glorious. And the transfiguration story gives us that.
But secondly, it also introduces something else which we enter into very easily. Notice what Peter said. After he sees this marvelous vision, he says, “Well, let’s build three booths here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” In short, what he is saying is “This is so wonderful. Let’s hold on to it forever. Let’s freeze the moment.” And if you think that is a far-off story of two thousand years ago, you’re wrong – this is our story everyday. Under the pressure of the media and advertisers, we are always asked to freeze the moment. We’re always asked to say “and they lived happily ever after.” We’re always asked to look at the gorgeous apartments and clothes and lifestyles and say “this is the way it is forever.” Advertising encourages us to think this way.
But of course realism comes along and says “that is impossible.” Even with the most wonderful dream house, sooner or later you have to clean the gutters. Even the most fervent handshake, sooner or later gets sweaty. Even the most perfect wedding day, sooner or later, there’s conflict, because you are two people, and not really one, yet.
And then the third element comes in, which is interesting. Enter the scenario two party poopers, by the names of Moses and Elijah. And while Peter is rhapsodizing about this moment because he’s just gotten his first car and his first house, Moses and Elijah are whispering to Jesus. And what are they whispering to Jesus about his passage to Jerusalem? They are whispering about Jesus passion, his suffering and his death. Here they come along and mess up the whole picture. There’s Jesus in His magnificent, splendiferous glory, all ablaze with light and white, and these two come along and talk about His passage and His suffering.
But when you take the whole story, what St. Luke is saying is, “This is not only about Christian life, this is the story of every human journey. And every human journey unfolds in basically five steps after the transfiguration.
The first step is always the revision of the dream. As I said before, reality sets in. Your feelings toward each other on the wedding day and then years later are not quite the same, or are they?
They may be better, hopefully. They may be worse. But they’re not the same. The realities of biology come in. People do get sick. Children throw up, and diapers have to be changed. And death intrudes. Death and sickness. And all of a sudden, you see, we begin to revise the dream. But we’d like to build those three booths and hold on to it as its best forever, but Moses and Elijah are turning out to be correct after all. There is some kind of passage, some kind of passion or suffering or change, that is demanded. And you almost get the full sense of the story – some change is going to be demanded in order to recapture the original ideal. And so you begin to revise the dream somewhat.
There is the temptation to escape because, in fact, it hits us all. The temptation to escape because, in fact, the transfiguration did not freeze forever. And usually escapism takes two forms. It takes the form of cynicism. And we make all those marriage jokes, and we make all those husband and wife jokes, and the job jokes, and things like that, covering up our cynicism that arises because the promise didn’t hold up. Let me give you an example: regarding family: Home is the place you can say whatever you want to. No one will be listening anyway. Marriage: He has been unlucky in both his marriages. His first wife left him and his second wife won’t. Parenting: I’ve been tempted to believe Mark Twain’s philosophy. When a kid turns 13 – stick him in a barrel, nail the lid shut and feed him through the knot hole. When he turns 16, plug the hole. I am sure that some of you parents felt that way. Then the job after a while gets boring. The house got too small. We needed a better neighborhood. The friendship soured or was betrayed. Our darling children turned out to disappoint us. And we begin to have a sense of loss, of expectation and the loss of the wonderful. It is in this stage, by the way, where most divorces take place.
The third stage of the journey, of course, begins with the turnabout for those who persist. That’s the time when you begin to take on and to share one another’s burdens, both in sympathy and in wisdom, because you see now that life isn’t the ideal that TV says, but life has to be worked at. This stage usually requires a certain amount of reflection, a great deal of prayer, and sometimes it does require a trauma. There’s a loss; there’s a sickness; you lose your job. You’re disappointed with your children. There’s an addiction you struggle with. But nevertheless, through this, you begin to build empathy. You begin to see people in a different light because your weaknesses are apparent and you begin to accept their weaknesses. And that begins to be a movement.
Then you hit the fourth stage, which is really an advance. As you go through life, you begin to get to the level of acceptance on your life’s journey. And you accept life – not in the defeat, but accept it in love. It’s like the Jesus who looked at the young man and loved him. It’s like the Jesus who looked at Mary Magdalene and saw possibility. It’s like the Jesus, who saw Matthew, the tax collector and said, “Come follow me.” It’s when your vision begins to see people with the eyes of Christ.
And then, of course, you hit the fifth level. You get the ideal back. You get the transfiguration that you started out with, but now transformed. Not with all the splendor of Mount Tabor, not with all the razzle-dazzle of white robes, and voices and clouds, but a true and sincere transfiguration of life and love that you never dreamed possible. These are the people who have it together. These are the people who now understand what Moses and Elijah were whispering about. It was necessary for Jesus to go through His terrible passage from His transfiguration in glory and it is the same for you and me.
We all have to go through the desert, and then the oasis turns out to be much more beautiful. Foolish Peter, who wanted to freeze the moment, but Moses and Elijah, agreed that there is another, better, more profound transfiguration that comes only through the passage of those five steps.
Once you’ve been through the desert, and once you learn to pray, and swallow your pride, you say, “I need a power greater then myself. I need God.” I am disappointed and I am hurt, and I am bitter, but I realize now that these can be passages to an oasis. As I said, many haven’t reached this point. They’re stuck in cynicism. Marriage is a fraud. The job’s a fraud. Friends can’t be trusted. These are people who are stuck on stage two. And they have to learn a little bit more in the heat of the desert. So let’s pray for them and for ourselves.
Next time you listen to this gospel, please don’t think of the transfiguration as a magic show. Think of it as a profound statement about life. You and I balk, and you and I don’t want to go through the desert, but go we must. We have no choice. But we’re not alone. We have each other. We have our faith community. But above all, we have Jesus who has been through it all, who knows what it is all about, and who turns to us in His glory and says “Come to me, all of you who are heavily burdened, and I will refresh you. For my burden is easy, and my yoke is light.”