mountain climbing
Jesus "took Peter, John and James, and went up onto a mountain to pray." —Luke 9:28
On this tenth day of the forty days of Lent, Jesus takes us up Transfiguration Mountain. He has much more to tell us but we cannot bear it now (Jn 16:12). We must "climb the Lord's mountain...that He may instruct us in His ways, and we may walk in His paths" (Is 2:3). We will see Jesus glorified and hear a voice from the cloud say: "This is My Son, My Chosen One. Listen to Him" (Lk 9:35).
These mountaintop revelations will keep us from despair when the Lord takes us to Calvary to see His quivering body wrenching with pain. The mountain prepares us for the valley, the glory for the suffering. Because of Transfiguration Mountain, when we walk with Him "through a gloomy valley" (Ps 23:4, JB), we will "consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us" (Rm 8:18). We will fix our eyes on Jesus (Heb 12:2) and walk on the waters of evil (Mt 14:29). We will not run from the cross but boast of it (Gal 6:14).
After the Transfiguration, we know our citizenship is in heaven, and that it is from there we await Christ's coming (Phil 3:20). We realize we are in the world but not of it (Jn 17:15-16). We are already seated on Christ's throne (Eph 2:6) even though our bodies are away from the Lord (2 Cor 5:6).
Prayer: Jesus, may I experience what the apostles did on Transfiguration Mountain. Prepare me for the rest of Lent and life.
Promise: "He will give a new form to this lowly body of ours and remake it according to the pattern of His glorified body." —Phil 3:21
Praise: Praise the risen Jesus, Who lives to reign forever and ever!
Rescript: †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, August 3, 2006 & September 18, 2006
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