Fr Marco Lazzaron
n the original Gospel of Mark, the evangelist does not finish his writings with the apparitions after the Resurrection. Why? Because the Resurrection is, first of all, an experience. If you want to live as a risen person you need to encounter and to have an experience of the Risen Lord. That is why Mark puts at the centre of his Gospel the episode of the Transfiguration, to say that if we live the Gospel truly, our life will also be transfigured, it will be transformed.
Jesus takes with him, “where they can be alone”, Peter, James, and John. To all of them Jesus gives new names: Simon will be Peter and James and John will be remembered as “sons of thunder”. They are probably the most stubborn but also the most influential in the group of Apostles and Jesus chooses to take them to a high mountain, a very particular place.
Last week we spoke about the desert. This week we have another location which, as well, is not simply geographical but also theological. The mountain is the highest and closest place to heaven and so the closest to God. Sometimes in Italy (and probably also here) there is an expression that when you are very happy and joyful you can say that you are touching heaven with a finger. Those are the moments in which you feel that you are also closer to God. This is the experience of Peter who exclaims: “Rabbi, it is wonderful for us to be here, so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah“, being Moses and Elijah’s images respectively of the Law and the Prophets being Jesus the fulfilment of both.
This Gospel answers what makes you really happy. The experience of the Transfiguration and the Resurrection (as said above) are things that you can see only with the eyes of the heart. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”. Sometimes you can perceive those who have seen and met God; it is a similar facial expression of two young people who love each other, it is the face of an infant cuddled in his mother’s arms, it is the eyes of a mother when she embraces her new-born baby, etc… Love changes the way we see reality and the world around us. Maybe, even as Christians we have lost this way of looking at the world, we reduced Christianity to go to Mass and to think that it is boring. As Peter, James, and John we also need to see reality with a different pair of glasses.
Ten days ago we celebrated Ash Wednesday and the word “splendid” or “splendour” comes from the Greek “spledòs” that means “ash”. The splendour then calls back to a transformation, to burn something old to become something new, to die so that something new may be born.
The good news of this Sunday? The Transfiguration shows us of what kind of material we are made of: in the image and likeness of God! We are mixed with heaven and we are made for heaven!