Obedience leads to action
Remembering the context of the Transfiguration gives us a better appreciation of its meaning. It comes right after Christ predicts in Caesarea Philippi his coming death on the Cross and Resurrection, and he states that this is the way of discipleship.
It is amid this anxiety over the cost of discipleship and His imminent passion and death that Christ and his disciples receive a confirmation that they are on the right track, and, for Christ, that He made the right choice to follow his Father’s will. His loving obedience is affirmed, or reaffirmed.
Obedience is one theme in this Sunday’s readings. We have the beautiful and familiar story of the obedience of Abraham to the point of willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac, giving up what one loves and values for the sake of a greater love and value.
Obedience affirmed is the most striking theme in the Transfiguration, where the Father affirms the Son’s obedience: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” We heard this in Christ’s Baptism, but scripture scholars point out there is now a difference in the Transfiguration.
Revelation
The Baptism was a private revelation, i.e., only Christ heard the affirmation. Here in the Transfiguration the revelation is made to others, to all of us through Peter, James and John: “...Listen to him.”
The Transfiguration becomes one of the bedrocks of our obedience. Obedience is to hear and to do, to follow what one hears, and ultimately to serve. To listen to Christ is the core of Christian obedience, and in Christ the Father has spoken through the Cross and Resurrection. God’s final word is that salvation comes to us through and in the Cross and Resurrection.
Obedience is the fruit of listening, a listening with the heart and in silence. It is listening with and in love.
The made for TV movie of Mitch Albom’s novel, “For One More Day,” gives us an analogous example. The main character, Chick, who figured in a near-fatal car accident, was in between life and death when he spends “one more day” with his mother, who died five years earlier.
After going through key events in his life and understanding his journey better, the story ends inside the car. Chick’s mother, before she leaves him, tells him to go back and make things right in his life.
Realizing how good a mother she was, Chick begs her not to leave him. Then she tells him that she will always be his mother and that he will always hear her just like an echo, adding that you hear the echo in silence, and long after the source is gone.
We hear in silence long after the source is gone: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
There are two other
points in the Transfiguration for our reflection: our need for feedback or affirmation for the choice we made, and our need for the grace that will help us focus, i.e., remember and renew our choice to bring it to completion.
The need for affirmation of the choice we made we see in Moses and Elijah appearing with Christ Transfigured; the former represents the law and the latter the prophets, the two great institutions or traditions of the Judeo-Christian religion.
Christ’s choice
Their appearance with Christ affirms Christ’s choice to follow the plan of his Father. Last Sunday we saw how Christ, in the episode of the Temptation in the Desert, chooses to remain faithful to the plan of his Father and banishes the evil spirit who tempted him to do otherwise.
We must remember that to the very end, Christ made a choice. In the Garden of Gethsemane he agonized over this again, and again he made a choice to remain faithful to the Father’s will. The affirmation of the Transfiguration must have been a source of strength to remain faithful to the very end, knowing he made the right choice.
In the final stages, he makes the definitive choice: “Not my will, but your will be done.” “It is finished.” “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
The Transfiguration story, likewise, is a reminder for us to remain focused on the mission, the choice we made to dedicate our self to God’s will and mission for us.
Being awed by the Transfiguration experience, Peter is tempted to “abandon” the mission. “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But he is reminded that there is a mission, and they must go down from the mountain and proclaim the beloved Son in and to the world.
Obedience begins with listening and then making a choice. It is the choice that leads to action. Lent is a special season of grace to return to the source—that moment when we first heard and listened to God’s call; that moment when we said “yes” and started our journey to follow Christ.
It is a season of affirmation that we made the right choice, and our fidelity to our choice— lapses included—is given sharper focus.
It is a time to be silent to hear “the echo”: “You are my beloved Son...”