Gospel Reflection Feb 25 – Deacon Frank
Sunday, February 25
Second Sunday of Lent
Mark 9: 2-10
Gospel:
Jesus took Peter, 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 fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
“Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.
Gospel Reflection:
Have you ever spent ages trying to figure something out, only to have a flash of inspiration just when you have forgotten all about it? Some people call it “a lightbulb moment” or an “AH – HA moment”. Often it happens when we least expect it because lightbulb moments or Ah-Ha moments come from the unconscious mind. We cannot bring them on, but we can welcome them all the same. Sudden clarity may lead to a burst of energy or a renewed sense of purpose.
Peter, James, and John saw Jesus in a new light, literally so, when they accompanied him onto the Mount of Transfiguration. Mountaintops in the Bible are places of revelation, of an encounter with God. It was on a mountain that Elijah called down fire from heaven; on a mountain, that Moses received the Commandments. Coming down from the mountaintop, the face of Moses shone like a bright light. The Transfiguration transformed the disciples’ understanding of their master. Jesus was more than a prophet: he was God’s Son, the Beloved.
The mountaintop can be a metaphor for any transitional space where things – or people – are seen from a new perspective. We do not have to climb mountains for this to happen. A time of prayerful meditation can offer such a space. This Lent, we may like to spend time alone with Jesus, just as Peter, James, and John did, listening to him, as our heavenly Father bids us. The thought may not appeal to everyone. Some might even share the disciples’ terror, for the voice of Jesus can be a challenging one, urging us to forgive, and pray for our enemies. The bright cloud of God’s glory reaches out to wherever we may be.
This weekend’s gospel describes how heaven keeps spilling over into our world. In revealing Jesus in his divinity, it calls us, too, to be holy as well as human. We are all sons and daughters of God, all beloved, and though we may pass unnoticed in a crowd, there is in each one of us a little of the glory seen in Jesus. There will be moments when other people notice something different about us; moments, too, when we become suddenly aware that the person next to us is more special than we thought. It all depends how much we let them shine!
Deacon Frank Iannarino