his clothes
became dazzling white. (Lk.9:29)
2nd Sunday of Lent - February 24th 2013
Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 II Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 9:28-36
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading
from the holy Gospel according to Luke
Glory to you, Lord.
Peter and his companions who were
sound asleep awoke and saw Jesus aglow with glory and the two men who were standing
with him. As Moses and Elijah were about to leave Jesus, Peter
exclaimed, “Oh Master, how good it is for us to be here! Let us build
three shelters here: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (He
really didn’t know what he was saying.) While he was still speaking, a
cloud appeared and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened as
they entered the cloud. Then there came a voice from the cloud that said, “This
is my chosen Son; listen to Him.” After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found
alone. The disciples kept quiet about all this, and told no one at that time
about what they had seen.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord
Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
Second Sunday of Advent: Mt Tabor
On the first Sunday of Lent, the Devil takes
Jesus to a high mountain and tempts Him. (Lk. 4:6-7) On this second Sunday of
Lent, Jesus is again on a mountain called Tabor in Christian tradition. What
happened there is recorded in all three synoptic gospels (Mt. 17:1-8; Mk. 9:2-
8; Lk. 9:28-36), and is testified to by three earthly
witnesses (Peter, James and John), and by three heavenly witnesses (Moses,
Elijah and a voice from heaven). So the Old Testament law requiring three
witnesses to attest to the truth of any fact is superabundantly satisfied on
Tabor by six witnesses. (Dt 19:15)
I tell you my own eyes have seen his
splendor and his glory. I was there on the holy mountain when He shone forth
with the glory given Him by God his Father. I heard a glorious and majestic
voice calling down from heaven and saying, “This is my much beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased.” (II Peter 1:16-18)
A religious
experience
Something spectacular took place on Mt. Tabor. Tradition
calls it `a transfiguration,’ in which Jesus’ worn and weary figure becomes
glowing and glorious. Catholics assign a special feast-day for it: August 6, Feast
of the Lord’s Transfiguration. Psychologists
have their own way to characterize the event. Believers call Tabor a religious experience. That’s an experience which originates from heaven, and which makes
us see
things and hear voices. On lofty Tabor Peter, James and John see Jesus’ clothes
become dazzling white, and they hear a voice declaring, “This is my chosen Son; listen to Him.”
A religious experience on the road to
Damascus
A religious experience can happen not only on a breezy
mountain-top but also down in the sweaty valley of human existence. Saul of Tarsus
had a religious experience on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians
there. (Acts 9:1) Suddenly a light from the sky flashed around him, and he
heard a voice crying out, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4-5)
That experience turned Saul of Tarsus into St. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles.
A
religious experience in a garden
St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430),a `rounder’ who
fathered a son out of wedlock, had a religious experience when one day in the
garden of his villa he suddenly heard a voice saying, “Take and read! Take and
read!” He picked up the Scriptures which lay near at hand, and they fell open
to Romans 13:13 where Paul exhorts
Christians to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and forget about satisfying your
bodily appetites.” That experience turned the `rounder’ into the great Bishop
of Hippo in North Africa, who by his voluminous theological writings ruled the
Church from the early four hundreds to the thirteenth century.
A religious
experience in a dilapidated chapel
St. Francis of
Assisi (1182-1226) had a religious experience when praying one day before an
ancient crucifix in a dilapidated chapel of San Damiano. Beseeching the Lord to
let him know what He wanted from him, Francis heard a voice saying, “Repair my
church!” Being a literal man, he thought it was the Lord calling him to repair
the rickety old chapel of San Damiano. It was, in fact, the Lord calling him to
repair the Universal Church fallen into ruin because of Medieval excesses.
Because of that experience, Francis fathered a huge family of brothers and
sisters, who down through the centuries repaired the
Church far more lovingly and effectively than the very angry Martin Luther.
The deadly
expectation of nothing
Religion
is rooted in religious experience with its coin of ecstasy. There is
ecstasy up there on lofty
Mt. Tabor: Peter is beside himself and
is emoting, "Oh how good it is for us to be here!" It’s so
good that he wants to dig in and stay up there forever: “Lord, let’s build
three shelters up here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (Lk
9:33) Not only is Mt. Tabor high, Peter,
James and John are also high.
Jung in high
expectation of a Mt. Tabor
Karl Jung, the father of modern
psychology and the son of a minister, relates how he was in high expectation of
a Mt. Tabor experience on the day of his First Holy Communion, and how the
Bread was so poorly broken as to prove deadly. He writes,
I waited for the day with eager
anticipation, and the day finally dawned. There behind the altar stood my
father in his familiar robes. He read prayers from the liturgy. On the white
cloth covering the altar lay large trays filled with small pieces of bread
which came from the local baker whose goods were nothing to brag about. I
watched my father eat a piece of the bread and then sip the wine which came
from the local tavern. He then passed the cup to one of the old men. All were stiff, solemn, and it seemed to me,
uninterested. I looked on in suspense, but could not see nor guess whether
anything unusual was going on inside the old men. I saw no sadness nor joy in
them. Then came my turn to eat the bread which tasted flat, and to sip the wine
which tasted sour. After
the final prayer, all peeled out of the church with faces that were neither
depressed nor illumined with joy—just faces which seemed to say, “Well, that's
that!” In a minute or two the whole church was emptied! Only gradually in the course of
the following days did it dawn on me that nothing had happened. (Karl Yung Memories, Dreams,
Reflections)
That’s a
sad description of a congregation which expects nothing and receives nothing
from their Sunday church-attendance, and is not disappointed at all! After the
final prayer, they don’t linger on in a glow of ecstasy. They don’t cry out,
"Oh, how good it is for us to be here! Let’s
stay here forever.”
Instead, they peel out of church as fast as they can, happy to get back into
the real world.
When
the sun set on the long anticipated day of his first Communion, Jung found
himself exclaiming, “Oh, how bad it was for me to be there! And he promised
himself, “I must never go back there again!” He kept his promise: the day of
his first Communion turned out to be the day of his very last Communion.
On moving
on
If
our church never has us crying out ecstatically “Oh how good it is for us to be
here,” we shouldn’t just grin and bear it. We should do what we can to help it
be a church which puts us up on Tabor. Then if our efforts fail we should move
on and ‘shop’ for another church. We take great pain to shop for a good house
or a good car or good food; we should take
as much pain (and even more) to shop for a `good church ‘ -- one that can take
us up to Tabor and make us exclaim, “Oh how good it is for us to be here!”
Conclusion
Tabor: not forever and not for
itself
The Tabor high was not forever; Jesus and
the Apostles eventually had to get off that lofty height and descend into the real
valley of human existence. (Lk. 9:37) The Sunday high too is not forever; we
have to leave Mass and descend into the sweaty valley of our weekday lives.
What’s more, the great high of Tabor was not for itself; it was for the great
low that awaited the apostles in the imminent death of Jesus. The Sunday high
too is not for itself; it’s for all the lows which await us in the week ahead. 
