Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 21st February 2016

St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai

Second Sunday of Lent 2016-02-20

I've long been drawn to the Transfiguration, through the wonderful icons of the feast, through the Gospel stories of it, but also into the mystery which it represents! Time and time again I've entered the reading prayerfully thinking I knew about it only to discover something new and something half understood. This Gospel comes after Peter's great confession of Jesus as Messiah and divine one; it's the culmination of Jesus' ministry and the prelude to his death. We glimpse salvation on the mountain only to come down to the valley of the shadow of death and gaze at the unfolding drama of Christ's passion and death!

I can understand Peter's muddled response very well, something wonderful has happened, it's one of those great encounters that humans have, either of love or wonder, a simply breath-taking experience! Peter doesn't want that moment of light to dim, he has glimpsed Jesus as he really is and loves him, so taking his cue from the feast of tabernacles, he wants to build three booths so Jesus, Moses and Elijah can stay a bit longer.

Many commentators think Peter is putting his foot in it, but we know this event makes a huge and lasting impact on him which he later understands: 'And so we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts' (2 Peter 1: 15-19)

These are the words of somebody who has entered the mystery of love, revealed in Jesus, revealed in the glory of God who can transfigure us too with that inner and radiant light of the Holy Spirit. This Gospel has to be read at a distance, I believe it can only be understood if we take the time and trouble to open ourselves to the hope it gives us; that there is life beyond this life, that suffering is part of the journey but not its ultimate end for Christ is the Morning Star that never sets!

Let us make these words of Gregory Palamas our own: 'make every effort to raise the eye of your mind toward the light of the gospel message, so that you may in the meantime be transformed by the renewal of your minds and, by drawing the divine radiance down upon yourselves from heaven, come to share in the glory of the Lord whose face shone like the sun today on the mountain'. (Gregory Palmas, Homily on the Transfiguration).