We are all very familiar with the story of the Transfiguration and that could be a problem. The fact that it is so familiar might prevent us from hearing it anew as it is proclaimed over and over again. We might tend to “click it off” and let our minds wander, since we feel like we know it through and through. We live in a world of sound bytes, text messaging, and web and channel surfing. Everything and everyone gets about 3 seconds of our time, because, if someone or something is too familiar to us we feel like we have “been there” and “done that” and immediately want to move on because there are so many other people to see and things to do. This extremely worldly pattern of behavior does not sit well with pondering Sacred Scripture. Scripture really does not lend itself to being packaged as a sound byte. It is meant to be studied, prayed and reflected upon. It is always new, but we have to spend time with it in order to realize that the insights it gives us are never ending and always fresh. For instance, with the story of the Transfiguration, if we spend time with it, we just might come to see that it is much more than a story explaining how Jesus’ clothes turned dazzlingly white one day. We might come to see that it is as story that shows us that if we spend time with Jesus, as Peter, James and John did, we just might receive a wonderful gift. We might just be given the opportunity, if but for a brief moment, to see Jesus as His Father sees Him. Of course, to see Jesus as the Father sees Him is to see Him as He truly is. Now, wouldn’t that be something? But there’s more. What if we could see everyone and everything with the Father’s eyes -our loved ones; and our not so loved ones? Don’t you think your life would be different if you could see as the Father sees-if you could see God’s world and His people as they truly are? The message of the Transfiguration is that you can do just that, that you can see as the Father sees, but in order to do so you have to go to the mountaintop with Jesus in prayer in order to do it. And you can’t be too fast with the clicker.
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