I promise this will be my last Olympics homily until the next time they come around.
I couldn’t get over the hockey players that won. When they won the Olympics, they were so happy, so excited, so proud of their accomplishment. The one player had lost his tooth. You could see when he got up there and smiled, he was missing a tooth. I thought, this goes to show ruggedness and getting beat up and doing it all for the glory of the gold medal. They did it. I think about the gold medalists for the Olympics, and how they dream all their lives for that moment when they will get to ascend to the podium and receive their gold medal. I just looked at them and I’m like, they’re shining. They’re just so radiant and so excited about their accomplishments.
I was thinking about the Transfiguration today. It is the opposite for Jesus because in the Olympics they had put themselves through a difficult time. They lost teeth and they probably got bloody, they got black eyes and after that, they received the glory.
In the Gospel today it shifted. Jesus first shows His glory to the apostles and then, after He goes down from the mountain of the Transfiguration, He will enter His passion. He will become bloodied, He will become beaten, He will be crucified. But He gave the disciples this moment of glory. He said, “I want you to remember this, and don’t tell anybody about it”, which they didn’t listen to, “And don’t tell anybody about this until after I die. After they see me suffer and die and rise, then I want you to share this story.” The story of His glory.
In the Gospel today, Jesus takes three of His disciples with Him. It’s interesting because He appears to them with two people from the past, Moses and Elijah. Ever wonder why Moses and Elijah, of all the people on earth, those are the two that appear with Him? A couple of reasons, and both of them help us realize what Lent is, and what the Sabbath is, and what Sundays mean to us. Also, because they experience themselves the mountaintop experience where they saw the glory of God. I want to just read a little bit from Moses and a little bit from Elijah, too, from their experiences.
Moses’ experience was on Mount Sinai, and this is from Exodus, Chapters 19 and 20. They had been walking forty years around in the desert not knowing where to go. Forty years, which should sound familiar to us, forty days of Lent. After this time of wandering around not knowing what they’re doing with their lives, giving themselves over to idol after idol after idol, God finally decides He’s going to give them the law so that they can truly be free people. They no longer have to be slaves. They can be free people. He calls Moses up to the mountain, up to Mount Sinai, and it’s there at the mountain that the Lord speaks to him.
He tells him to come up, and he gives him the law, and God speaks these words, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me.” He’s trying to help Moses realize that you have been enslaved for forty years. I’m the Lord your God. I’m going to save you from this slavery, and you don’t ever have to become slaves again. The only way that you will become a slave again is if you start worshipping other gods.
We should know that they weren’t very good at this because they started worshipping other gods, but He says to them, Remember the Sabbath day – keep it holy. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath for the Lord your God. You shall not do any work. For six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day God rested. This is why the Lord has blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
Why did Moses appear with Jesus in the Transfiguration? Jesus is trying to help us realize that what Moses spoke is what I want to fulfill. What God spoke to Moses is how I want my people to live. I don’t want my people to be slaves, I don’t want to get them to give themselves into idolatry, I don’t want them to go back to the way of sin. We hear from God in the law given to Moses that the primary way that we are spared from that is keeping holy the Sabbath, coming here to worship Sunday after Sunday. When we turn away from the Sabbath, when we turn away from God, we begin worshipping other idols and before you know it, we become enslaved again with sin. These forty days of Lent is a time for us to be freed from our sins. That’s why Moses appears with Jesus so that we can say I want to fulfill what God spoke to Moses so many years ago.
Then Elijah is with them. What’s up with Elijah, why is he there? Elijah also had a mountaintop experience. His mountain was called the Mount of Horeb and during this experience, you’re probably very familiar with this, but right before the experience, “He got up, drank and then strengthened by that food, Elijah walked for forty days and forty nights to the Mountain of Horeb. (1 Kings 19:8). Again, we’re having this idea of forty days and forty nights. Jesus was tempted in the desert forty days. We spend how many days in Lent? Forty days.
Elijah, who had spent forty days, is called up to the mountain by God and when he gets there, “he takes shelter. But the word of the Lord came to him and the Lord said, ‘Why are you here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I’ve been here. I’ve been most zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, but the Israelites, they forsake your commandments. They stopped worshipping you and they have destroyed your altars. They have murdered your prophets by the sword. I alone remain, and now they seek to take my life.” (1 Kings 19:9-10).
Remember, the law had already been given to Moses and the people. And what did they do? They stopped worshipping and then they began persecuting all of those that did worship. How quickly we spiral out of control.
Then the Lord says to him, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord; and the Lord your God will pass by.” There was a strong wind and a violent rush through the mountains crushing the rocks before the Lord–but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind, there was an earthquake–but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake, there was a fire–but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire, a light, silent sound. When Elijah heard this, he hid his face and he stood at the entrance of the cave, and a voice said to him, “Why are you here, Elijah?” Elijah replied, “I have been most zealous for you Lord, the God of hosts, but the Israelites have forsaken your covenant.” The Lord said to him, “Go back!” (1 Kings 19:11-15). Elijah sat back and he came to Elisha and he began to fulfill his mission that the Lord had given to him.
There are these two figures in the Transfiguration that appear with Jesus, Moses and Elijah. Moses was known to be fulfilling the law of God; Elijah was known to be a prophet of God. What Jesus is doing by appearing with them is He is confirming, yes, these people were God’s prophets and everything that God spoke to them I continued to speak to you. Just as they traveled for forty days in the desert, and just as God gave the covenant to keep people from slavery, people kept turning back to their slavery. They didn’t keep holy the Sabbath and humanity began to spin further and further out of control.
We have this moment of the Transfiguration. When Moses saw God, it was amazing because the vision was so bright that when Moses came down from the mountain his face was glowing. People couldn’t even look at him, so Moses had to wear a veil on his face because his face was blinding the people.
I think that’s what happens to us when we come here to receive Our Lord on Sundays, we come into the Transfiguration. This becomes our moments of glory; this becomes the moment where we receive that Olympic medal; this becomes that moment where we hear the voice of the Father say, “You are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased.”
I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed it, but the altar is always up a few steps and there’s a reason for this. The altar is supposed to be symbolic of the mountain so just as Moses climbed the mountain, as Elijah climbed the mountain, as Jesus climbed the mountain and took his disciples, we come together to this Holy Mountain. As a priest in a certain way, it’s a privilege to take everybody by the hand and say, “Come with me. Come up to the mountain.”
I’ve been to the Mountain of Transfiguration in the Holy Land. I’ve been there a couple times and it’s amazing. Every time I’ve been there it’s just so windy but even better than going there myself has been taking people on pilgrimage. Leading them up there to experience this wonderful holy site.
Sometimes as a priest it can be, “I don’t really want to go to Mass, Father. Why do I have to go to Mass?” Or a lot of times it’ll be, you probably heard this from your kids or even grandkids, “I talk to God on my own, I don’t need Mass.” I think of Jesus. He’s inviting His disciples up to the Mountain of Transfiguration and what if the disciples said, “I don’t really need you by the way. I don’t need you to experience God. I don’t need your Transfiguration thing. I’m fine right here where I am.” They’d be missing out on this amazing opportunity of being led up the mountain to experience God. It’s almost like receiving a gold medal every Sunday and sometimes you think, “I don’t really want to receive a gold medal today. I got enough gold medals.” You were led here to this mountain of God and in this mountain, we become holy so much so that when we leave here our faces should radiate.
Hopefully we’re like Peter too, because Peter, when he’s up on the mountain and Jesus is transfigured before them, I love Peter’s enthusiasm. He says, “I want to stay right here. I don’t want to go back. Let’s build three tents. One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah and we’re going to hang out here forever. Everything’s going to be cool.” Jesus says, “Listen to my voice” and He commands them to go back down into the world. It’s from there that they will get bloodied and beaten up and persecuted.
I would hope that all of us when we come to Mass have that same desire as Peter. That we so love being here that we want to say Lord, “I don’t want to go back to the real world. Let me just be here with You for a little while. Let’s build three tents and just camp out here.” It shouldn’t be, “I can’t wait to get out of here. I have to get to the restaurant before everybody else does. I have to beat the parking lot.” It shouldn’t be like the end of a concert at Blossom where you just want to beat that traffic. Believe me, I have left a concert or two early, but this is different in that experience.
We’re here really seeing Jesus. He’s brought you here to the mountaintop. He’s brought us here to receive His Body and Blood. He’s brought us here to make us so united with Him that we truly hear the voice of God say to us, “You are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased.”
Now you’re going to go out into the world for the week and the world’s going to kick your butt. You’re going come back the next week and you’re going to come back discouraged because the world is going to try to convince you that you are not beloved, that you’re not My child, that you’re not good and pure and beautiful.
Saint Paul says in the second reading today to be holy and that holiness comes not by our own effort, but by what God has done for us and what God does for us every Sunday. He calls us His beloved. He is transformed from bread and wine into His very Body and Blood and then we receive Him into us so that when we leave here, we should be glowing. People should look at us and say, “Where have you been?”
I know that there have been times for each and every one of us where we’ve had a mountaintop experience of God, and when you’ve had those experiences, you walk out and people do look at you and say, “Wow, there’s something different about you.” Your face just changes.
I invite us at this Mass, if we’re not experiencing it during this Lent, to ask for that grace. “Lord, help me to experience this Transfiguration. Help me to experience the Eucharist, your true Body and Blood so deeply, that it transforms me. So much so that others may see the light. I would never want to miss this glory. I would never want to turn back to the slavery of sin. I would never want to make an idol. I would never want to miss this opportunity for the Eucharist. I would never want to miss a gold medal every Sunday.” He wants to fill us. He wants us to have this sacred time together so that we are filled with His glory, so when we walk out to the world to those that are in darkness they may see us as beloved sons and daughters of God, and something wonderful will happen. You will reach out your hands and bring them to the mountaintop of God
