Dear Parish Family,
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., in one of his great speeches, said “I have been to the mountaintop.” There, with God’s help, he could see what most people could not – how America might become a nation where justice was available to all.
In today’s gospel we see Peter, James, and John are on a mountain where, with God’s help, they see with blinding clarity just who Jesus really is. Later these three men will see him at his low point, in the agony in the garden at Gethsemane on Holy Thursday. But today they get a glimpse of what he will be like on Easter Sunday.
Jesus gave his close friends a glimpse of his glory to help them through the hard times he knew were ahead of them. He still does this sometimes for us. Many of us have known peak moments when God seemed very real and close, and the spiritual world felt as real as the world of sight and sound and touch. It may be at a Mass when praying comes easily, when everything seems to fit. Or it may come in moments of quiet, when we’re alone without being lonely. A sunset or a flower or a deserted beach can bring on those special times when we feel in touch with ourselves and with God.
These special moments are a blessing, but they’re out of the ordinary. Most of the time we have to plod along without visions, without peak experiences, without even warm and fuzzy feelings. That’s why following Christ is different from being in a parade. Palm Sunday was a one-shot spectacular, and so was the vision on the mountain. Most of the time we are like the apostles when they came back down from the mountain; we look around and see nothing out of the ordinary. Only Jesus is there, beckoning us to follow him on rainy days as well as sunny ones. The Father asks us to put our faith in Christ: “This is my chosen son; Listen to him.” Stay focused on Jesus and “He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body” (Phil 3:21).
How do your peak experiences help you to sense the presence of God when you find yourself in the valley?