Faith is tied to love, because love itself creates insight - John 11:1-45

Kaalagad Gospel Reflection- 5th Sunday of Lent
March 29, 2020
John 11:1-45

Faith is tied to love, because love itself creates insight.

 But what had lasting significance were not the miracles themselves but Jesus' love. Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, and a few years later, Lazarus died again. Jesus healed the sick, but eventually caught some other disease. He fed the ten thousand, and the next day they were hungry again. But we remember his love. It wasn't that Jesus healed a leper but that he touched a leper, because no one touched lepers. - Shane Claiborne

 If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

 We have the story of the raising of Lazarus in John 11:1-45, the gospel story for the 5th Sunday of Lent.  It is a story of resuscitation or coming back to life after an experience of death.   The reality of death comes to haunt us. All will die. We are reminded of the celebration of Ash Wednesday - we are dust and unto dust we shall return.  Our existential angst. Death leads to decay.  Decay leaves behind only dust.  Human life is basically earthly.  Steve Jobs, co-founder, chief executive and chairman of Apple Computer powerfully said: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

 The words of both the Martha and Mary, and the words of some of the Jews are anxious words of mortality, of fears of death and of the clout of skepticism. The sisters say, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."  Some say, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying!"  The sisters speak of our fear of abandonment by God.  The Jews speak of our doubts about God's saving power.

 Martha and Mary are grieving what they rightly perceive as the unnecessary death of their brother Lazarus. A delayed arrival in Bethany is not what they expected from Jesus, with whom their family has a close relationship. Martha is resentful of Jesus’ delay, and in the same breath she trusts in the power of his compassion. Mary blames Jesus and at the same time kneels at his feet. Jesus himself is deeply moved and troubled; he weeps alongside the beloved sisters. This is friendship and intimacy; this is mercy and love in one sweeping gesture.

The interchange between Jesus and Martha shows the pain and loss of the sisters of Lazarus. When she says, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died," I hear a very familiar tendency among those who are grieving. It is a time of denial, of regret, of guilt and disappointment.  Those regrets are part of grieving, not in a way of condemning, but in a way of accepting the pain of losing a loved one and coming to terms with his death. 

Jesus' response to Martha’s grief and pain is, "Your brother will rise again." She hears this as Jesus’ act of care and mercy.  She hears Jesus’ love for Lazarus. Martha is consoled by her faith in the future resurrection and her brother's place in it. Jesus responds to this statement of faith by challenging her with a deeper revelation of himself.  Jesus says to Martha, and to us, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Martha responds: “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.” It is Martha’s confession of faith. It’s about giving Him all her fears and hopes. It’s about total trust even when life-changing events are tough especially in moments of despair and death. Martha’s discerning faith in Jesus, made without the advantage of witnessing miracles, made in the midst of grief and disappointment, is striking for its insight, strength and depth.

The confession of Martha is a confession of faith and love or a powerful testimony of being a friend and a disciple of Jesus. Pope Francis reflection on Lumen Fidei (the light of faith) is illuminating when he connects faith to love and truth. This is the depth of Martha’s confession.

 If love is not tied to truth, it falls prey to fickle emotions and cannot stand the test of time. True love, on the other hand, unifies all the elements of our person and becomes a new light pointing the way to a great and fulfilled life. Without truth, love is incapable of establishing a firm bond; it cannot liberate our isolated ego or redeem it from the fleeting moment in order to create life and bear fruit. If love needs truth, truth also needs love. Love and truth are inseparable. Without love, truth becomes cold, impersonal and oppressive for people’s day-to-day lives. The truth we seek, the truth that gives meaning to our journey through life, enlightens us whenever we are touched by love. One who loves realizes that love is an experience of truth, that it opens our eyes to see reality in a new way, in union with the beloved. In this sense, Saint Gregory the Great could write that "amor ipse notitia est", love is itself a kind of knowledge possessed of its own logic. #27

Sometime in each of our lives, Jesus is going to basically ask us the same question – do we believe in Him and have faith in His words and deeds? Do we still trust and love him in moments of suffering and doubt? Often it will be at a time of trial, struggle and grief, like it was for Martha. It will be the moment of truth and love; have we just been paying lip-service to Jesus, just mindlessly going along with what we have been taught about Him and His Church, or will we make our belief in and love of Him real and personal?

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss-American psychiatrist, author of the internationally best-selling book, On Death and Dying (1969) said with profound insight: It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.

Fr Percy Bacani
Missionary of Jesus

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John 11:1-45 New International Version

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11 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” 8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” 11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” 12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. 14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

 17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles[b] from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

 28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.


32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. 35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

 38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” 40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” 45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

The Fruit of Tya Maria’s Sin - John 9:1-41

KAALAGAD Gospel Reflection - March 22, 2020
Fourth Sunday of Lent
John 9:1-41

9As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.

8The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” 12They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” 16Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. 17So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”

18The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” 24So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” 25He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

27He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.

35Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” 37Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” 38He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him.

39Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” 40Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” 41Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

The Fruit of Tya Maria’s Sin

I first learned of my cousin Monching’s existence when in the summer break of 1962 my mother took me to visit my ageing grandmother at her house in Santolan, Pasig.  I have not been to that house in a long while.  So I immediately set myself to re-acquaint myself with and re-explore the surroundings, as a curious 11-year old kid would do.  I decided that I had not yet seen the somewhat isolated rooms in the outermost corner of the second floor.  I noticed at once that the room at the end of the hall was in use, the door was left ajar and I could hear voices.  I carefully approached it and took a peek.  Then there was my mother’s sister, Tya Maria, hunched over a figure of a long lanky boy sprawled almost naked but for his boxer’s shorts on the banig as she was spoon-feeding him. The boy immediately peeked back past Tya Maria’s cover and broke into a wide not-too-quiet a grin.
            “Sino siya, Tya Maria?”
            “Si Monching.  Pinsan mo siya.”  Noticing that I was studying his condition of disability – long thin thighs and emaciated body, Tya Maria added, “Nagkasakit siya. Hindi na siya makakalakad at makakapagsalita, pero kung kakausapin mo siya, maiintindihan ka niya.” Tya Maria actually encouraged me to engage Monching in some sort of a conversation, to which I readily set myself to doing.   His smile was so infectious and he looked quite handsome and clean, and smelled fresh with Johnson’s Baby Cologne as obviously he was just given a wash.  I noticed, too, that he was far darker in complexion than I was.  I did no longer ask my aunt about this detail.  All I felt was that I found a long lost cousin, in fact, as later developments would show, a long lost brother and… a friend.

But later back home I asked my mother more about Monching.  Delicately, but without any hint of blame or shame, she intimated that Monching was my Tya Maria’s “anak sa pagkadalaga” with a black American G.I. whom she met after the war, “noong panahon ng liberation.” Monching was born in 1946, afflicted with the condition mongolism, not long after his father went back to the States, not to be heard from again.  My mother would not comment on the “love angle” of Tya Maria’s liaison with the American G.I.  But even to me, my Tya Maria’s love and dedication to Monching was undeniable.

For the duration of the summer of ’62, I asked my father, mother and siblings that we go on a weekly visit to my grandmother’s place.  For varying reasons each, we all wanted to go.  As for me, of course, Monching was the principal reason.

So my weekly visits to my grandmother’s place continued on till the summer of ’63. Monching was particularly curious about my experience of school.  At that time I was attending Letran as a grade-six schooler.  I told him I did not like my school very much.  I did not quite like the division or classification of students according to the class they belonged or language they mostly spoke.  There was then still a significant number of students who were Spanish-speaking: they strutted about boisterously and loudly as though the Philippine Revolution had not happened.  A sizeable number came from the posh villages – Forbes Park, Dasmarinas, New Manila.  They were the new ilustrados, albeit mostly English speaking.  And then there were the majority of us, ang mga indios, whose parents aspired to provide their children some semblance of “classy” education in a school that could not compete with the real classy league of Ateneo or La Salle.  At that time it was all about class.  But this is political after-thought.  What really bugged me about Letran of my time was that I was often bullied by lazy and dumb Kastilaloy classmates who demanded I’d do their homework or assignments or else….

Monching wanted to know if there was anything I particularly liked about my schooling in Letran.  I narrated to him I particularly loved my music class and my English class.  In my music class (through which I became part of the Grade School Glee Club) I told him I learned to sing songs that I grew to love forever, like “Moon River” (from Beakfast at Tiffanny’s), “Summer Time” (from Porgy and Bess) and, characteristic of Letran education, some Spanish songs like “Valencia”.   From my English class, I narrated to him the story of the French epic poem “The Song of Roland”.

We would “chat” for hours on end. And when it was time for me to go, there was always this pale of sadness over his face which I found impossible to ignore…but none more than that teary expression of sadness that I saw when I bade him goodbye before I entered the seminary.

I did not see him again since our last meeting in the summer of ’63.  He passed on in 1969 when I got to be hauled away farther to Baguio City for my philosophy studies at Maryhurst.  Tya Maria tried to explain to me that Monching, with his condition, could not be expected to live very long.

When I was reading and began to reflect on this passage of John 9: 1-7,  I could not help but be struck by the uncanny parallelism between Jesus’ words and my brief experience of faith and friendship with my cousin, brother and dear friend Monching.

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked him, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?  Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned: he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world….”

Monching was not born a “mongoloid” because he was being punished for his sin, nor for Tya Maria’s sin.  He was born as a revelation of God’s work.  Through him and Tya Maria, God has revealed the marvel of love, compassion and humanity, the joy of motherhood, brotherhood and fellowship, the wonder of learning, of music, of story telling… truly, the wonder and miracle of being alive in God’s light and love. 


DIEGO G. QUEJADA
Urban Missionaries
The Mission Partner in Labor Apostolate of
The Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines 
 

Water and food in a time of coronavirus - John 4:5-42

KAALAGAD Gospel Reflection -  March 15, 2020

Third Week of Lent

John 4:5-42

Water and food in a time of coronavirus

In this global pandemic, we are like Israelites wandering in the wilderness, fearful and angry, finding no place and no one safe. Gone from the shops are alcohol, masks and other things we believe would protect us. We observe social distance, avoiding places frequented by people known to have been infected.  In church, we consider the most hygienic way to give and receive the Eucharist. If things worsen, we may not even be able to gather.

Yet it is crowded in the margins of life.  Public transportation is packed and the alleys along which cramped shanties huddle are narrow. Instructions to wash hands with soap and water, singing Happy Birthday 2x are good, but is there water in the taps? Exhausted and underpaid, thousands of workers have no sick leave benefits. The reality for most is no work, no pay. Disease knows no borders but ultimately, the poor more vulnerable. Already stretched for resources, the social distance required during this time becomes isolation, and for the poor almost certain illness and possibly death. What will sustain us all through this time?

It is in this context that the Good News of living water comes to us -and directly too. Surely, Jesus enters our lives and our cities. In the same way he chose to go via Synchar, taking that direct route rather than the longer one used by other Jews to avoid the Samaritan town, He comes to us where people hunger and thirst. At the well, he engages with a woman infected by prejudice and shame. He does not stay away. As the conversation goes on, the woman realizes that Jesus has actually seen her, her needs, her longings. At the well, she finds another place so unlike the fearful, anxious, small one she has experienced.  There is something about the hospitality Jesus offers. She grasps a radically new way of viewing life, flowing and limitless.

The apostles who later arrive are clueless. They wonder why he is engaged in inappropriate behaviour (speaking with a woman), but avoid the topic asking whether he has eaten at all.  Jesus keeps to the essential: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.

”What is that food? What is this drink? What is God’s will for us to live out in our time? Jesus speaks of the living water that is the sharing in God’s life. It is to burst beyond the constraints of fear and self-preservation, to go outside our little isolated lives into the vast realm of God’s eternal, untamed Spirit. It is to go beyond the steps to keep disease at bay to care for self and others.  Could it be for a world that is more aware of how we all are actually so closely connected, of how what affects one, so easily can affect the other. New health practices might adopted not only in homes, but also in communities. In government budgets health-for-all becomes a priority. National security becomes primarily human and ecological wellbeing.  With production and imports slowing down, we would have less junk in dumpsites and lower carbon emissions. We would produce local and buy local, stimulating livelihoods within communities instead of giving power to large corporations. Community gardens could become more a standard feature of food security for neighbourhoods.  We could have economies that are more life-giving for people, and local communities where ecosystems can regenerate.  Perhaps we might realize that after all, our small, fragile world could provide abundant life for everyone.

In a world grown sick and fearful, the constant movement of the Spirit could move us all to envision and work for a new creation of wholeness and abundance. “Look around you,” Jesus tells his disciples and us. The world waits the Good News, “look, see how the fields are ripe for harvesting” (v.35).

Rev Sophia Lizares

Uniting Church in Australia

The Gospel Passage (John 4:5-42)

5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”

13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.”

17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!”

19The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

27Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?”

28Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30They left the city and were on their way to him.

31Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

What’s Going on Here? - Matthew 17: 1-9

KAALAGAD Gospel Reflection – March 8, 2020
2nd Sunday of Lent

Matthew 17: 1-9

17Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

What’s Going on Here?

Only six days previously Jesus began telling his disciples he would be dragged before the scribes and the priests of the Temple; he would suffer greatly and then be put to death.  Shocked as they were, perhaps the disciples did not hear the last part: that he would be raised from the dead on the third day.
How could they possibly comprehend this? That Jesus of Nazareth, their companion and Lord, the healer of the sick and the forgiver of sins was headed for torture and death?  Certainly, Peter remonstrated strongly against Jesus but was swiftly put in his place with a “Get behind me Satan!”

How then were Peter, James and John impacted that six days later when they were led up to a high mountain, only to see Jesus “change into another form”.  (The Greek word for Transfiguration is “metamorphoo” which is the origin of our word metamorphosis).  Not only did the face of Jesus shine like the sun and his clothes become white as light, but there behold were Moses and Elijah talking to him!  These were the two who epitomised the Law and the Prophets, the very foundation of their religion.

The mountain, reminiscent of Sinai. Moses the law giver. Elijah the forerunner. A voice from the bright cloud. Jesus the Son of Man, destined to fulfill the promises of ages. This was an epochal moment.  The end of one epoch, the beginning of another.

Yet Jesus was to die first? Again, how could they possibly comprehend that?  No doubt the reality of resurrection after death had not seeped into their mind, struggling as they were with the possibility of his death.

Centuries later in our own time there is so much we do not comprehend about what happened on the mountain. It was bringing the past ages of the Jewish people into one point in time and forecasting it into the future.  It is upon each generation of Christians to grapple with the meaning of this event.  It is now our turn.

How do we view our lives as Christians?  It is possible we become myopic about our faith, seeing it closely through the lens of our daily lives with its routine and its grind sometimes.  Or perhaps grind most of the time. We say our prayers, make our intercessions, seek God’s favour through Mary; complete our rituals either in the house or in the church.

In a moment of reflection and meditation we can allow the Spirit of Jesus to expand our consciousness of Christian faith, to truly transfigure the way we view our lives, to undergo a metamorphosis of our own.

We belong to a great march of history, dating back to the time that Moses climbed Mt Sinai out in the unforgiving desert and underwent his metamorphosis, contracted by God to lead his People to a Promised Land. We are connected to an ancient belief and ritual that has carved out the centuries, with prophets like Elijah restoring and carrying the flame forward until Jesus took hold of that flame of faith.  It consumed him in death, restored him in resurrection and projected his Spirit into the future.  To our time, to our lives, to our community.

As in times of old, the flame can be lost, people can lose their way, powers in the world and the church can seek to put the flame under a drum out of sight.  But the flame can never be extinguished, it will find its way out of all the hurt and sin and misery of humankind, because the flame is the living Spirit of Jesus who is subject to no restriction.

The joy – and the burden – of carrying that flame is upon our shoulders as the whole world continues its stumbling way to being the Promised Land of the Father of Creation.
Being part of this ancient history is not summed up in our daily prayers, our intercessions for God’s help, our rituals of worship and penance.  It is summed up in acting out the mission of Jesus by caring for our neighbour, those rejected by society – and by government; it is to make a safe way for the poor, those lonely and destitute, those oppressed and downtrodden.

We are called to be agents of the transfiguration of the world, to bring about a continual and continuing metamorphosis of our own lives and of our society.

Integral to this transfiguration is the demand to confront evil, to challenge the powers of government, of society and of church who seek to extinguish the path to the Promised Land.  Concretely, who seek to oppress the poor and persecute any who challenge them.

Our faces may not shine like the sun and our clothes not be white as snow.  But we can stand and proclaim that we know what’s going on here!

Tony Conway
Concerned Christians of Australia