28 Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. 34 As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” 36 And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.
Listen to the story told a couple of times and realize new ideas keep popping up. There are a lot of connections someone could make with this text. The Transfiguration account should not be treated like another event in the day and life of Jesus. It has more depth than just "Jesus is God!"
Listen to the text. You will hear only a couple of voices and they seem to speak a great deal. You will hear St Peter stepping in quickly even though he is half asleep. He just perks right up and tells Jesus his idea. If you listen really closely, you can even hear Elijah and Moses saying something that you can't quite make out. But you recognize they are talking about a departure of some kind.
Listen to the Voice from the cloud. You hear the straight forward declaration of who Jesus is. He is the chosen One, whatever that means. Jesus is declared the voice's Son. Thus, we conclude that Jesus is God. But is there more to hear. He is there something else to be said.
Listen to the Silence. Sometimes we make it difficult for people to hear what we are saying. Sometimes we make it difficult to listen to what people are saying. Here there is no further discussion down the Mountain. There is only the silence. St Peter boldly speaks up when he is half asleep, but once the voice says "listen to him!" What does St Peter do? What do we do?
Most of the time we keep talking. We just keep adding in extra thoughts, ideas, and emotions. But the Voice tells us to listen to him. They find Jesus there alone and they keep their mouths shut. Because with their mouths closed and their ears opened, they can actually listen to him. Listen to Jesus, Listen to the Word of God, and Listen to the Silence. (I think it is that still small voice, which might have something to say.)
No comments:
Post a Comment