Jesus takes Peter, James and John up the mountain and is transfigured before them.
So many questions in one sentence!
Why does Our Lord take only three disciples up the mountain to be transfigured?
Why not be transfigured where they are in front of all the disciples?
Why go up a mountain?
Why be transfigured at all?
[PAUSE]
The Church Fathers are not unanimous as to why Our Lord is taking just St Peter, St James and St John with Him up the mountain. We do know that these are the disciples who have the greatest impact on how the Church grows. St Peter founds the Church of Antioch and the Church of Rome. St James is the first disciple to drink the cup of martyrdom after his missionary travels. St John speaks to the world through his Gospel and letters.
All three have a ministry that is seen by the World. Their light shines throughout the world. And where better to shine the light of the world than from the top of a mountain where everyone can see it?
The Transfiguration acts as a light house a beacon of the Christian faith where a little of Christ's divinity bleeds through into our world from Eternity. This is the light set on the hill. Why do so few people see it?
[PAUSE]
People don't see the light because they prefer darkness. Light shows up the deficiency of our comfortable lives. It is those who accept the truth of how much they lack in living who begin to seek the light.
Seeking the light means a struggle - a long climb up the mountain of our cold, hard and rocky existence when it would be easier to let go and fall back into the comfortable darkness, accepting that our lives are flawed and living with those flaws rather than seeking the light.
But it is Jesus who is taking Peter, James and John up the mountain to meet the Light. Jesus is not just the end of our struggle to the light, He is the means by which we find it. He is the Light by which we see the Light. He is accompanying us in our struggles even when the darkness prevents us from seeing Him.
St Peter, St James and St John are the ones who are called to witness the Transfiguration at the express and clear decision of Our Lord for His purposes and we may not know precisely what these purposes are. Their ministries to us give us some idea of why, but it is clear that they struggle with Our Lord up the mountain to see the Light of the World. This mountain is their struggle.
The other disciples have their own mountains. One disciple will let go of his struggle and fall back into the darkness, but the others will see the Light and bring others to the Light as a result of their ordeal.
[PAUSE]
We, too, have our cross to bear and our mountain to climb. We cannot reach the Light without climbing. We cannot be a Christian without an arduous struggle against our fallen selves. We cannot be a Christian without accepting that we are flawed but then we cannot be a Christian by accepting those flaws as a part of us.
Thankfully, the Christ that we see transfigured at the top of the mountain is the same Christ Who climbs with us bearing His cross and giving us strength to bear ours.
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