We all have crosses which we should bear. We have Jesus to help us carry them.

AN EXPERIENCE WE ALL NEED

Mk. 9:2-10

I have been very fortunate to have been on pilgrimage to the Holy Land several times.  Among the indelible memories I treasure is my first visit to Mount Tabor.  What made it so memorable was the fact that I visited it in the evening when the sun was setting and the sky was aglow in red and orange for a long time.  It was so easy for me to image Peter saying to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is wonderful for us to here.”  What an indescribable experience it was for Peter, James and John to be with Jesus on that lonely mountain with the rest of the world left behind and to bask in the light of His glory.

All of us need that kind of experience.  Many of us are so plunged in the noise and materialism of this world that we think that this is all there is.  There are times when we need to go to a mountain top with Jesus and catch a glimpse of something better.  From the Preface of the Mass of the Transfiguration we know why Jesus appeared to His three Apostles.  The Preface says, that Jesus ‘bathed in dazzling radiance, so that His Disciples might not lose faith when they saw Him stricken on the Cross; and that the splendour of the Head might prefigure the destiny of His Body, the Church’.  What does an experience like that mean to us and why do we need it? I can think of several reasons.

Firstly, we need to be reminded of those values that the world makes us forget.  The world makes us make significant things seem small and the small seem great.  Someone once said, “A penny held close enough to the eye can block out the sun.”  That is what the world does to us.  It fills our vision with the little things until the big things can no longer be seen.  If we live with that long enough, it is to be expected that we lose the values that really matter.  What a difference it would make if for a while we could focus our minds on Jesus and the things for which He stands.  We need to be reminded of the important things that the world makes us forget.

Secondly, we need that kind of experience to enable us to regain our sense of direction.  We do not correct our course in life merely by working longer and trying harder.  If you are lost in a maze or in the woods, the worst thing you can do is to keep going.  Almost invariably, you will be walking in circles and using up the daylight and burning up all your energy.  What you need is elevation.  If there is a hill or a high tree close by, climb up it.  From that altitude you will be able to see some horizons and where you are.

We need that in our personal lives.  The pressures of daily living are sometimes not unlike a jungle.  We can get lost in them and forget who we are, why we are here and where we are going.  If somewhere in our minds we could climb a mountain with Jesus, that could be the thing to get us back on course again.

Thirdly, we need a transforming experience to reprove what is wrong in our lives.  In the day-to-day events of life, it is dangerously easy to get by with a lackadaisical conscience.  We can think that there are plenty of people living lives worse than ours.  There is plenty of darkness under which to hide the spots and stains of our own character.  The devil has a tendency to help us compare ourselves to others, and we can appear to be pretty good.  But get alone with Jesus and your worst self is challenged by His best self.  This is what Peter felt when he fell to his knees and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  That is a humbling experience, but without it there can be no spiritual health.  We can spend all our time with the world and think pretty well of ourselves, or we can slip away to ‘a mountain top’ with Christ, and let Him show us what we are and help us to become what we ought to be.

Finally, we need this mountain top experience with Jesus in order to find the balance between prayer and work, to rededicate our lives and release the power within us.  If we followed our reading in Mark’s Gospel a little further, we would discover that when Jesus and His three Apostles came down from the mountain, they were met by a desperate father with a sick son.  There was work to be done and there always will be.  Work alone is not the answer, it must be backed up with prayer.  Work must be the fruit of our prayer life.  One without the other is like trying to row a boat with one oar.  We will find ourselves going in circles and getting nowhere.

Lord Jesus, like Peter, James and John we all need ‘a mountain top’ experience of being alone with You.  It would help us to lead lives of true values, clear direction, moral integrity and practical usefulness.  We all need on some regular basis to find a way to close out the world and focus our minds for a while on Your radiant glory.

From the cloud came the Father’s voice: “This is my beloved Son.  Listen to Him.” That is the heart of today’s Gospel.  If Jesus is truly the Son of God, then His word carries final authority.  We must listen - not only with our ears, but with our lives.

Lord Jesus, in our trials help us remember Your glory. Teach us to embrace the Cross with hope, and to listen always to You, the beloved Son of the Father. Amen.

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