August 6, The Transfiguration of the Lord

Today’s feast teaches us on two levels: Form and content.

Regarding form: Jesus goes into solitude, but with companions. This was His custom. He was often called to deserted places to pray. But in the most important moments He also takes a few companions. It is true here, and in the Garden of Gethsemane. Both are in preparation of His passion.

He takes Peter, James, and John. Out of the multitudes He has 72 disciples. Out of the 72 He chooses 12, and out of the 12 he is really closest to 3. This is a great pattern for our community relationships as well. We may be in a large spiritual movement, but there will always be a core of really committed people, or disciples. They are our local family. Out of disciples we will usually find a smaller group that we are closer to, and out of those we will usually only really be close to a few. Most of us only have a few really good friends. This is as it should be. It is how it was with Jesus. To be really close to everyone is simply impossible. It drains our energy. This is a great pattern for good relationships in Christ.

But we also need solitude. Jesus steps away from the three. He cannot go really deep in their presence. Yet, the three are there to pray with Him, and they protect His deeper solitude. This is the pattern for monastic communities, especially the semi eremitical ones patterned after the first Christian monks of the deserts of the Middle East. This was the common pattern of the 11th century monastic reforms of the Camaldolese of St. Romuald, and the Carthusians of St. Bruno. This was also the pattern of the first communities of St. Francis in the 13th century. It is the pattern we use at Little Portion Hermitage as well.

That is the form, but what of content? That is the environment, but what of the living reality the environment establishes and protects?

That content is Jesus’ dialogue and transfiguration. He is seen with Moses and Elijah. Moses represents the Law, and Elijah represents the prophets. Both are from God. The Law establishes God’s way for His people, and the prophets call them back to it when they stray.

But they do not discuss the law or the prophets. These only prepare the way for something greater to which they both point, and by which they are both fulfilled. They discuss the passion of Jesus, the dying and the rising of Jesus through the cross and resurrection. That is the way of paradox that takes us beyond mere external observance of the law and prophets to the mystical experience from which they both come, and point back to. That is a mystical union with God. That union is beyond words, but words are, and must be used to point us to it.

A paradox is a contradiction that speaks a deeper truth. Finding communion in solitude, a deeper communication in silence, the greatest wealth in poverty and simplicity, and are all such religious paradoxes that take us beyond mere ideas about God to a mystical experience of God. The greatest paradox is finding life through death. The Paradox of paradoxes is found in Jesus who IS dying and rising, and not only points towards the way, the truth, and the life, but IS that way, truth, and life.

The law and the prophets point us towards this ultimate spiritual experience. They are not the goal. They only point the way. Likewise, all good religion is from God to lead us back to God. But religion is not God, nor is it a personal experience of God. It is only the means to that end. It remains for each of us to actually go through the door to that end.

Jesus us the door that leads to the actual experience of eternal life. There are many doorways to this experience, but Jesus is the Door of doors. Other religions and philosophies all speak of the paradox, and are doors, but Jesus is the Paradox of paradoxes, and the Door of doors. Moses and Elijah only point to the Door. It remains for each of us personally to make the decision to go to the door, and enter into the actual experience of salvation and eternal life.

The Transfiguration is a “mystery,” and “mystical.” Why? It is also a paradox, a truth beyond words that speaks the deepest truth we all know to be true deep within. There is glory in it, but they the cross is the focus of the dialogue between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. The way of the cross seems to lead only to humiliation and death, but it really leads to glorification and eternal life. This is the great Paradox of Jesus Christ. That is why the Feast of the Transfiguration is about glorification through the humiliation of the cross that Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus about.

When the transfiguration and glory subsided the three could not see “anyone but Jesus.” The things of religion are wonderful, but they all disappear once communion with God through Jesus is actually experienced. The law and the prophets, or the good things in any other religion or philosophy all point towards this Paradox of paradoxes that confirms, and completes them all. Likewise with any saint; they all flow from Jesus, and lead back to Jesus. It is all too easy to get sidetracked in focusing on the saints of Christ instead of on the Christ they always point towards. Sometimes by focusing too much on saints we obstruct the will of the saints, and fall short of being saints ourselves. All must be focused on Jesus.

We conclude by a meditation on solitude and community again. The three wanted to set up three booths for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, and stay there in worship. Jesus alone remained once the other two disappeared. Likewise, they had to descend the holy mountain once the experience subsided. They had to go back down to the ordinary things of ministerial life. On the way down the mountain they find that the disciples were unable to heal someone, although Jesus had given them the power to do so. We too must go back down from our mystical experiences of solitude in order to minister to those in need. These will be in the church and in the secular world. There are problems and dysfunction in both. A person needed to be healed. The disciples needed to be encouraged to minister themselves.

Do we find tome for solitude and community. Do we have right relationships in family and church? Do we sometimes get sidetracked into religion, and miss God? Do we sometimes focus on the things of Jesus, and miss Jesus? Do we stay stuck in the old, and not pass through the Door to the new? Are we willing to go down from out mountaintop spiritual experience to really minister to those in need in the church and in the world? These are the questions today’s wonderful Feast of the Transfiguration ask. Jesus always remains the Answer of answers. Focus on Him alone.

John Michael Talbot