Last Epiphany, Year B, Feb. 11
2 Kgs. 2:1-12 • Ps. 50:1-6
2 Cor. 4:3-6 • Mark 9:2-9
Before we walk the way of the cross through the long season of Lent, we are strengthened by a vision of glory and power that assures of our final victory and union with God in Christ. We must, of course, hold these mysteries together, as all the mysteries of Christ are one in the heart of God and one in the holy Church. We are “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:10-11). Today and every day, we carry our wounds and the seed of our victory, our victory being nothing less than the joy of beholding the light of our transfigured Lord in whose glory we already share, the increase of which will have no end, for we will “be changed into his likeness from glory to glory” (Collect).
To go with Jesus to the Mount of Transfiguration, we must firmly resolve to press on, to insist by faith that we will not leave our Lord. Like Elisha, who thrice told Elijah “I will not leave you” before Elijah was swept up to heaven on a chariot of fire, we would do well to go in faith where Jesus is going. And where else, truly, is there to go? Simon Peter once said, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).Follow him with your faith and imagination. “Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. … Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, but only Jesus” (Mark 9:2-8). We are the intimate friends of Jesus. We see the glory and partake of it. We hear the celestial voice and know that what is true of Jesus by nature is true of us by adoption and grace. We are the sons and daughters of God.
In a commentary on the Transfiguration, Anastasius of Sinai, a seventh-century bishop, calls us to see the reality of this great event for our lives. Listen! “Since each of us possesses God in his heart and is being transformed into his divine image, we also should cry out with joy; It is good for us to be here — here where all things shine with divine radiance, where there is joy and gladness and exultation; where there is nothing in our hearts but peace, serenity and stillness; where God is seen. For here, in our hearts, Christ takes up his abode together with the Father, saying as he enters: Today salvation has come to this house. With Christ, our hearts receive all the wealth of his eternal blessings, and there where they are stored up for us in him, we see reflected in a mirror both the first fruits and the whole world to come” (Liturgia Horarum, vol. IV, Feast of the Transfiguration).
We are not ashamed of the cross, nor are we ashamed of the glory, the wonder, and the light.
Look It Up: The Collect
Think About It: As there is always more of God to receive, growth is unending.