Saturday in the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time, February 18, 2023

Mark 9:2-13

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; then from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, the disciples 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. Then they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” He told them, “Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him.”

When we read of how the Lord manifested his glory and appeared to the Apostles in the place of honor amidst Moses and Elijah, it pays to keep in mind that he chose to do this not before people more likely to understand his glory but to those more likely to benefit from it.  These were accomplished, skilled, hard-working men.  All three had derived a hard living from the sea.  They were practical men.  The practice of religion was strongly integrated into their lives since childhood.  They went to the synagogue on the Sabbath to hear and discuss the Scriptures.  They would have died rather than eat pork or worship an idol.  But as yet they were not spiritual men.  The Peter who went up the mountain with Jesus and the others was not the Peter who would say, a couple of months later, “Ye men of Judea, and all you that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known to you and with your ears receive my words.  For these are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day: But this is that which was spoken of by the Prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass, in the last days, (says the Lord), I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2, 14-17).  The Peter who went up the mountain understood the world in very material ways.

“And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.”  Mark’s very plain, very simple description of the vision reflects how Peter perceived it at the time.  But his words, as reported by Mark, give some idea of how overwhelmed he was: “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”   There stood the Lord Jesus Christ, ablaze with glory, and the mighty men of old, Moses and Elijah, and Peter was proposing to erect shelters for them with the sticks and branches which the mountain offered as building material?  Mark comments, almost certainly paraphrasing his master, “He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.”  The Greek text agrees with the English translation:  they were greatly terrified.  To this point they knew the Lord possessed power which he used at various times to heal the sick, to expel demons (sometimes in spectacular displays), to walk on the water, and to calm storms instantly.  But this glorification went far beyond what they knew or expected.  In the Transfiguration, these practical, earthy men were thrust into the world of the spirit.  Though more prepared than others, they were not st home in it.  Light blasted all around, light that was love and that was inexhaustible.  It shook them through their beings so that they knew their insignificance and at the same time how loved they were.  It was inexplicable.  But it could not go on for long.  They heard the words of the Father identifying his Son and commanding them to listen and to obey him, and then, “suddenly, looking around, the disciples no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.  It was as it had been.  At least it was on the outside.  Jesus “charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”  Not that they could articulate what they had experienced even to each other for some time to come.  

They passed through the ground they had covered on the way up, speaking little.  It all looked the same.  But they were different.  They began to be quicker to understand the spiritual in the earthly world.  Suddenly, it made sense to them that Elijah had come in spirit through John the Baptist.  They still had far to go, though, and even with this experience Peter would deny his Lord three times (but without it, John would not have been able to stand under the Cross).  They would need to be filled with the Holy Spirit before it all came together for them, that it all became clear, and they could preach his Gospel to the ends of the earth.