“Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them…” (Mark 9:2).
I have been meditating upon the Transfiguration of Christ, which we commemorate in the Fourth Luminous Mystery of the Most Holy Rosary.
“Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them, and His garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.’” (Mark 9:2-10).
In that moment of the Transfiguration, the Apostles saw a vision that they could scarcely believe with their human eyes. The vision they saw was a Heavenly one. It was a vision of Perfection. They saw Christ Himself perfect and Divine before their eyes.
And they saw this – these Apostles were granted this vision – because Christ wanted to arm them for the torment that would come. He needed to prepare them for the bad times, and the hard times and the times when they would know that He had suffered and died. He wanted to prepare them for the times when Christians would be persecuted and they themselves would be martyred. He was arming them for the bad stuff that He would use – as God – to turn to the GOOD.
And I have been reflecting on that today – PALM Sunday – which was just another time when God showed the Apostles the good stuff so that when the bad stuff happened they would draw strength and remember that not everything was as it seemed.
And while I was reflecting on this today, I suddenly realised that I too am an apostle. And sometimes – just sometimes – I get a glimpse of the Divine as well. Sometimes, I am on Mount Tabor and I can see God there – standing in His Divinity and I watch Him like Saint Simon Peter and call out that I will make a throne for them all. And God looks at me as He did at Saint Peter, and He knows that this is not permanent, it is a temporary thing. This is a little reminder of what is to come.
Those little miracles that I see in my every day life – the things that work out so perfectly that they can barely seem possible, the coincidences that have changed me and changed the course of my life – those things are the little gifts, like the Transfiguration and PALM Sunday, which Giod sends me as a reminder during the bad times.
And it occurs to me today that it is during those bad times that I completely forget to understand the miracles that God showed me before – those little Transfigurations, and like Simon Peter, instead, when times are bad, I run away and deny Him three times before the cock crows…
And I have been thinking about that today, as I think about the transfiguration.
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.