Jesus' Transfiguration reveals His divinity and how prayer transforms us to encounter God - Homily, 2nd Sunday Lent, Cycle C

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Prayer is one of the disciplines we practice during Lent to help bring about a transformation to make us more Christ like.   Throughout the Gospels we hear of Jesus going to pray before his miracles, curing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. Today Jesus has a profound experience as he goes up to the mountain to pray with his disciples, Peter, James, and John. This encounter must have deeply affected the disciple’s faith in him, as the Son of God.

Today’s readings are two mystical experiences with God to help us grow in faith.  Encounters with God are something that we don’t really think about in our busy and noisy world. We have too many distractions to realize the encounters where heaven meets earth. In addition to the noise, our Western culture is very skeptical that these can encounters really happen at all. But if we spend some quiet time in prayer, we can become aware of God entering our world and the power of transforming it into the Kingdom of Heaven.

A few years ago, I had a unique experience with a person who was homeless. I was walking back from my lunch in downtown Indianapolis and late for a meeting. It was quite common to run into the people who are homeless, and I would keep same change in my pocket to help them out.  Whenever I encountered person who was homeless, I would ask their name and try engaging in conversation to show some respect the dignity of the person. But on this day, I really didn’t have time to engage.  I was almost at my office when a man rode his bike quickly over to me and said, “I’m hungry, and haven’t eaten for 3 days, can you spare a few dollars to help me out?”  My thoughts were, I did not have time for this, but my heart prompted me to try to help. There was a convenience store close by, so I offered to buy him some lunch with a credit card. He didn’t want much, just a hot dog and soft drink and he was very grateful.  In leaving, I offered a short prayer for things to get better, as I really had to go.  His response to this was a prayer for me, my wife, two daughters, and son, with a blessing just like a priest would do. This really caught me off guard as I never discussed anything about my family to him, but he seemed to know them. In thinking about it later in the day I wondered, was this a mystical encounter with Christ? 

In the Gospel, Peter, James, and John went up with Jesus to the mountain to pray.  Just prior to this Jesus had told the disciple that he would suffer greatly, be rejected by the chief priest, elders, and scribes, be killed, and raised from the dead three days later.  This must have confused the disciples who saw Jesus perform miraculous healings, raised the dead, and feed thousands with only two fish and five loaves, that he would be killed.  If this were so, how could he possibly be the type of Messiah they were expecting. In going up on the mountain, Jesus was revealing he was something greater. While in prayer Jesus’ face changes appearance and his clothing became dazzlingly white.  He speaks with Moses and Elijah, who represent the Law and the Prophets, and foretold of his passion, death, and resurrection of the Son of God in Jerusalem.  Through his death on the Cross, Jesus would conquer death and be resurrected in a

glorified body.  The Holy Spirit appearing as the cloud mysteriously encircles the mountain, and the Father’s voice proclaims, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.” The Transfiguration, the revelation of Jesus in his glorified body, was an encounter for the disciples to come to faith in who Jesus is, the the divine Son of God who would conquer the world not by might and power, but through his obedience to the Father’s will, through his death on the Cross. The Transfiguration is also provided for us to believe today as well. God the Father reveals who Jesus is and guides us on how we are to respond to this revelation: Listen to him.  How can we listen to Jesus?  Through the quiet of prayer.  Spending time with Scripture is an excellent way of encountering Jesus in this busy world.  It’s one of the primary ways God speaks to us. Scripture tells us the story of the God’s covenants with his people throughout time, with the final everlasting covenant established in Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection.  The glorified body of Jesus revealed in the Transfiguration is what we hope to obtain for our own bodies if we believe in him.  St. Paul tells us that “he will change our lowly body to conform with his gloried body.”  Our earthly bodies will fail due to age and disease, but we have the hope of being restored to a glorified body in heaven through our faith in Jesus. 

We can encounter Jesus by quietly listening to him praying with Scripture. This us opens us up to the presence of God in our world.  Most of the encounters that we have with God, will be through interactions with people we are with every day. We just need to be open to encounters. Praying with Scripture and reflecting on our experiences throughout each day, can help us see where we encounter God in our lives. It may be where we least expect it, many times in the suffering of others, those who are rejected, lonely, and outcast. When we listen to Jesus, we can be transformed to make the Kingdom of heaven present here, maybe even like I the one I had a few years with the man who was homeless.  Was this an encounter with Jesus?I’ve prayed with the following Scripture from Matthew 25: Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? And the king will say to them in reply, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” I believe this was an encounter with Jesus.  May this Lent be a good time for all of us to be with the Lord, quietly listening to him through his Word and in prayer, so we can see him in the people we encounter each day, in the Body of Christ.