Mountain View

Mountain View

"This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well pleased; listen to him!"

Gospel for the Second Sunday of Lent: Matthew 17.1-9

Some of my most memorable holidays have been in our beautiful mountain parks. As a casual hiker, there is nothing more spectacular than gaining a little altitude and admiring a scenic vista atop a mountain. The air is crisp, and you breathe deeply, taking in the scent of cedar and pine. High up, there is the sound of the wind through the valleys; or perhaps a wondrous silence. You look to the horizon, and like Peter in today's Gospel you can help but say, 

 "It is good to be here" 

Sometimes we can experience the "mountain view" in our spiritual lives as well. I'm thinking now of friends and former colleagues who are just returning from the Religious Education Conference in Anaheim, California. I have attended that conference five times, and every time I would come away feeling alive in faith and spiritual wholeness. And the people- over 35,000 Catholics praying, attending workshops, and sharing their faith! It's the "mountain view", the same one we can experience attending a World Youth Day, or a parish retreat, a 50th wedding anniversary or an Easter Vigil. Your soul says

 "It is good to be here" 

But there's a problem.

We have to get off the mountain sometime. 

We come back to "reality".

This is something of what happens to Peter, James and John, when they get a "mountain view" to end all mountain views- Jesus- "his face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him"  Their appearance reminds us of the pillars of the Old Covenant - the Law and the Prophets-basking in the glory of the New Covenant, Jesus. Peter clearly doesn't get what is being revealed, all he knows is what he feels- that this is what heaven must be like...

And he doesn't want it to end...

He decides that they will stay on the mountain, who knows for how long???

"While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said ' This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well pleased; listen to him!'"

NOW, Peter, James and John are "overcome with fear". But seeing Moses, Elijah, and a transfigured Jesus didn't frighten them???? 

Was it the sound of God's voice? Certainly. Moses himself had the same reaction when he encountered the Lord on Mount Sinai.

But I think there was more to it than that.

The Father has told the disciples to listen to Jesus. What does that mean???

It means "take up your cross and follow me." 

It means "give up your possessions and follow me." It means "lose your life to save it."  

It means " Eat this bread, drink this cup, and do this remembrance of me."

It means "Come, let us go to Jerusalem"

For us as disciples, when we truly listen to Jesus, we may be overcome with fear!!

 But Jesus tells them on the mountain, as he would tell them after the Resurrection,

Be not afraid

Every "mountain view" in our spiritual journey will ultimately lead us to hear the call to conversion, which is at the heart of our Lenten journey to Easter.

And conversion is not easy. In fact, it's scary.

 With open hearts, we can hear another call, another voice.

The voice of Jesus who says

"Be not afraid"

And we can go down from the mountain, with a new view.

A view of ourselves as a new creation.