This is the Sunday in Lent when we look at the transfiguration. It is a powerful moment in the life of Jesus and three of his Apostles and simultaneously it is one of the powerful events in the life of Jesus that has a eyewitness account attached to it. We can find that in the letters to Peter.
We look at this event when Jesus takes Peter, James and John to a place where he is transfigured into a divine form reminiscent of visions we can see in the Old Testament. We can also see that He is with two other figures Moses and Elijah. Often times people connect them to the law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah) and remind us that Jesus is the fulfillment of both.
But let us look beyond that to some more practical realities of this truth.
First, there is a lesson the apostles are about to learn and we too must learn this. We are not in Heaven, we are on the way to Heaven and there is a great amount of resistance against us seeking to lead us away from Heaven. Jesus is transfigures, He appears in a way that the apostles have never seen him before and they see Moses and Elijah. Yet, this is not the end of the road. Peter thinks it is a great idea to end their journey right there. Sit down have a permanent picnic and just stop the journey now. Do not go to others, but let others go to you.
The apostles learn that this is not the place that they have been called to be and neither has Jesus. This is not the end and as much as everything is beautiful, it does not last. Indeed, things are about to get mighty ugly. They have yet to understand this, but this is the reality.
However, this is the mission. It is supposed to get ugly, indeed, humanity cannot be saved if it does not get ugly.
This is a reflection for us. There are many times in our lives when we want everything to be perfect, and it is perfect. We want it to stay like that, but that cannot happen. Things must get worse. If they don’t then despite the bad times, the good times don’t happen.
However, when things get worse, this does not mean that God is any less near us, indeed He is often closer 
to us during these times.
When we forget this, we can find ourselves in a position of believing that God is only present to us in the good times. We can take good times as a sign of His favor and never see Him in the bad times. Or we can take the bad times as God’s condemnation upon us because if we were really good people, nothing bad would ever happen to us, or so we think.
However, Jesus is in all his glory. He is with Moses and Elijah in theirs. However, let us look not so much at what Jesus is about to encounter, but what Moses and Elijah did encounter.
Do you remember that part in the Bible where things went wrong for Moses and he calmly accepted them offering up his struggles as part of his mission? Neither do I because it is not in the bible. Moses went through a tough time that he turned to God and demanded to be killed because his role had become so difficult. Elijah committed one of the greatest acts in God’s name in the bible. He challenged the evil queen’s prophets to a showdown between their god and God Himself. He won and in the process put to death all of Queen Jezebel’s prophets. Jezebel was a woman so evil that even today her name means the most evil of women.
Jezebel responds with threatening the most vicious of retaliation and Elijah becomes so terrified he runs away and he too wanted to die.
These are the men who had suffered so much and are there with Jesus as he prepares to go into the severe suffering of His death in the name of salvation.
As Peter, James and John come to learn, the transfiguration was a nice oasis in the struggle of their mission, but it was only that. The permanent oasis was to come after their deaths, two of whom were martyred.
How about you? In your mission, have you looked back upon good times and questioned God’s fidelity when you are then experiencing good times. If you truly plan to serve God long for good times, appreciate them when they come but prepare yourself for the bad times. Remember, we are in a spiritual battle. The Devil wants our silence and our discouragement and he wants us to quit. He will be happy to tell us that God only loves us in the good times. However, the truth is that the good times prepare us for the bad times. It is in the bad times that like Jesus, Moses and Elijah that we do the most of the Father’s work. Prepare for them, persevere through them and you too will enter into your glory.
God Bless You,
Fr. Robert J. Carr
Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community, the pastor at St. Benedict Parish in Somerville, MA and the editor of this blog.
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