Whenever we celebrate the Transfiguration of Jesus, I am
drawn to a pastoral experience I once had years ago. I was called to the home
of a young woman in her 40’s who was dying from cancer. I had come to know this
young woman when her husband died. I officiated at his wake, his funeral, and
burial. And, now, several years later she was dying. Her family had asked me to
come and make some preliminary plans for her funeral. When I arrived at her
home, she was lying in her hospital bed located in her living room. She had
been in a coma for days and no one knew how long she might continue to live.
Her family and I went into another room, and we talked about her life, and
started to look through the various scriptural readings for her funeral. When
we finished, I asked them if they would like me to do the prayers for the
dying, and they said yes. The two special prayers for the dying are Viaticum,
which literally means “Food for the journey”, in which the dying person
receives holy communion, and the Commendation of the Dying. We went into the
living room, and I sat on a chair next to her bed. Her family stood around the
bed. The head of the bed was raised, so that she was in a quasi sitting
position, and because she was in a coma and unable to receive holy communion, I
took her hand and began to pray the Commendation of the Dying. The prayers and
scriptures chosen for the Commendation of the Dying are very beautiful prayers.
Throughout the prayer, she lay peacefully, her eyes closed.
As I began the final prayer, “Go forth, Christian soul, from
this world,” her eyes suddenly opened and she gazed at me. I was transfixed by
her eyes. I felt like I was looking directly into her soul and I noticed that
though she was gazing at me, it was more like she was gazing through me at some
invisible person or something who was behind and beyond me. I continued the prayer, “go forth in the name
of God the almighty Father, who created you, in the name of Jesus Christ, Son
of the living God, who suffered for you, in the name of the Holy Spirit, who
was poured forth upon you, go forth, faithful Christian.” The intensity of her
gaze grew even more as I concluded the prayer,
“May you live in peace this day, may your home be with God in Zion, with
Mary, the virgin Mother of God, with Joseph, and all the angels and saints.”
As we all said, “Amen.” She closed her eyes and
died. There was a sound of startled recognition as to what had just occurred,
the family whispering to one another, “Did you just see what happened?” We all
knew, that when this young woman died, she was looking upon the face of the God
who loved her into existence. That day, at that exact moment, was this young
woman beheld the Transfiguration. She gazed upon God in all of God’s loving
glory and light, and was received into the loving embrace of her God.
In his 2nd letter to the Corinthians St
Paul tells them about what happens as people near physical death. Paul writes, “For this momentary light affliction is producing
for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen
is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.” In other words, we begin to see that which is truly real, everything
else that we presently see, is really an illusion, a mirage that fades away.
In today’s Gospel, the eyes of
Peter, James, and John were opened to see Jesus as he really is. No longer did
they just see the flesh and bone of the carpenter/rabbi/healer whom they
accompanied from place to place. They saw Jesus as he really is, fully human
and fully divine.
There is an old adage, “You can’t judge a book by
its cover.” This adage is especially applicable in the way we judge people,
isn’t it? Experience tells us that there is more to people, a greater depth to
who they really are than what we gather from first impressions. How many people
of Jesus’ time judged him primarily by appearance. The people of Nazareth could
not see beyond the carpenter Jesus to see his divine nature. The Scribes and
the Pharisees could only see Jesus as a rabble rouser, one who was threatening
the status quo of both the Jewish religion and the political status quo with
the Roman Empire. Only those male and female disciples that were devoted to
Jesus, who accompanied him on his journeys, who ate with him, heard him preach,
saw or experienced his healing acknowledged him for who he really was. We who
have not been given the gift of seeing Jesus Transfigured as did Peter, James,
and John. Are we as devoted to him and intent to follow him, as they did? Must
our belief in him to see him as he really is wait till that moment just prior
to our dying?
We do not have to wait until our imminent death to
open our eyes to the real presence of Jesus around us. Lent affords us a
special opportunity to begin to see what is truly real, to open our eyes to the
image and presence of Christ. Our faith is founded on the gospel accounts of
Jesus, the stories of God’s relationship with humanity in many biblical
accounts. Our faith is grounded on the tradition and teaching of the Church as
it has been passed on to us throughout the ages. As important, our faith is
founded on the continual interaction of Jesus with us right here in our church
community.
In the
coming weeks the special gospels of this season will begin to present us with
new insight, and new vision. We will hear in the story of the man born blind,
Jesus telling the Pharisees, “I came into this world for judgment, so that
those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.” The
imprint and image of God is in all created things. Let us invite Jesus to not
only open our eyes, but as importantly, our heart vision, to see his glorified
presence all around us. Let us encounter on a deeper level, the image and
presence of Jesus, present in the Eucharist, and present in the faces of the
Body of Christ gathered around us in church. Let us ask Jesus to open and
broaden our awareness of his face and presence in our families, our spouses,
our children, our greater family, our neighborhood, and in our workplace. Let
us call upon Jesus to open our eyes to his face and presence especially in
those we do not like, in those whose customs and languages we find may foreign
and difficult to understand, and in those we perceive are a threat to us. Most
especially, let us beseech Jesus to open our eyes to his face and presence in
the one person with whom we are the most critical, the person we look at when
we peer into a mirror, in ourselves, who are also God’s beloved daughters and
sons.
When we invite Jesus to open our eyes to see his
image and presence in everyone, everywhere, our lives will be radically
transformed, our lives will become Transfigured. We will begin to treat
everyone with the same love, respect, and devotion we reserve for Jesus in Holy
Communion. We do not have to wait till that moment prior to death to experience
the Transfiguration. Every day will be a Transfiguration.
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