Gospel Reflection For Sunday 6th August 2023

18th Sunday Ordinary Time – by Fr Brian Maher OMI

Gospel Reflection for Sunday August 6th 2023 | 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

It is so difficult to walk the roads of Israel with Jesus and meet him as he chats with his closest friends, tells stories to village groups who gather to hear him, and heal the sick who are brought to him. It is difficult because so much more is happening in the background of each event we read about in the Gospels.

The Gospels are based on eye-witness accounts of the life of Jesus, but they were not written down until at least thirty years after his death and resurrection. That is quite a long time, and I am sure we are all aware from personal experience that as stories get told and retold some details get forgotten and others added.

We must also remember that each Gospel was written for real people living in real towns and cities, each of them having real issues and problems to face.

Importantly, the Gospels come to us steeped in Jewish laws, traditions and Old Testament theology. Each Gospel, in its own way, links the life of Jesus to the God of the Old Testament and the many heroes who walked its pages.

Finally, and hugely important, the Gospels come to us from a time when the question, “who exactly was Jesus – God? Man? both?” was still being debated and argued. His Resurrection from the dead was such a life-shattering event that its implications took many generations to settle and become clear.

And somewhere in all of this walks the person of Jesus – the child born in Bethlehem, brought up in Nazareth, the eldest son of Joseph, a carpenter, and Mary, his mother. We know nothing of his first thirty years of life, until he appears as a disciple and friend of John the Baptist, a popular preacher and baptiser.

Jesus doesn’t exactly burst onto the scene, and he certainly wasn’t a headline-grabber. It seems he spent some time in the fishing villages along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, gathering to himself friends who shared his vision and understating of the ‘Kingdom of God’.

Most of this diverse group were fisherman, but there were also some others who, at least on the surface, would have hated each other. Matthew, the tax collector, was a person hated by the Jews as a traitor who worked for Rome. At the other extreme was Simon, referred to as “the Zealot”. The Zealots were a small Jewish sect dedicated to getting rid of Rome by force.

A tax collector and a Zealot together, and both close friends and companions of Jesus? How is this possible?

Simon may well have believed that Jesus could become the leader who would lead the Jews in a revolt against Rome. One can only suppose that as time went on, the Kingdom of tolerance and peace preached by Jesus resonated for him and he chose to stay with Jesus. Matthew, we can only suppose, saw in Jesus the possibility of forgiveness and salvation and was accepted by the others once he was accepted by Jesus.

Certainly, having both a tax collector and a Zealot among his apostles made Jesus’ claim that the Kingdom of God was for everyone even more credible.

For anyone wanting to encounter the person of Jesus as he walked the roads of Israel, today’s Gospel is ideal.

It is easy to imagine Jesus needing some time away from the crowds following him. We can imagine him escaping to the mountain with three close friends, to spend some time there praying, sharing each other’s company, and just resting. We can also, I’m sure, understand Peter’s reluctance to return from the mountain, back to the stress and pressure and constant demand for healing and miracles.

From this point of view today’s Gospel is easy to follow and really does allow us to be with Jesus, understanding something of the stresses and pressures he faced.

Unfortunately, that is where ‘what is easy to understand’ ends!

What happened to Jesus and his companions on the mountain may seem ‘easy’ to follow but, in truth, it is tangled and intertwined with Old Testament theology, linking the person of Jesus to the great Holy men of Jewish history. When Matthew wrote his account of this event, he presumed that everyone who read it would immediately understand the significance of the ‘mountain’, the ‘cloud’, the ‘dazzling white’ of Jesus’ clothes and face, and the ‘voice of God speaking from the cloud’. Matthew knew his readers would instantly recognise the parallels between this story and that of Moses on Mount Sinai. More than that, they would know the significance of Moses to God’s plan for his people. Moses was called to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. Matthew wants his readers to see in Jesus the ‘new’ Moses, sent by God to usher in the ‘Kingdom of God’ – the ‘new’ and final Promised Land.

So, how are we to understand what happened to Jesus on that mountain. Can we somehow see through the layers of Old Testament theology and determine what the ‘Transfiguration’ was about? More importantly, what was its significance for Jesus and the three disciples who witnessed it?

What happened to Jesus on the mountain? The simple answer is, “I don’t know”!! Two thousand years of history, changing times, and the development of Christianity into a world-shaping religious movement, have affected how this experience of Jesus on the mountain is told and heard by us today.

That said, it is possible, I think, to piece together what may have happened, using the story as Matthew tells it and helped by our God-given imagination.

We can imagine Jesus praying alone, maybe in the evening, while his three companions dozed close by. At some point Jesus had a profound spiritual experience which affected not just him but also Peter, James and John.

It is also clear that for Jesus the experience was comforting and affirming of what he was doing.

A ‘Spiritual or mystical experience’ is always beyond words. There simply are no words to describe what happens when God ‘talks’ to us, or when we know, for a few fleeting moments, that we are truly in God’s presence. The great mystics of the Middle Ages, people like Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, described their ‘moments of God’ as “visions” or “revelations”. The bible often uses the word “dream” to talk about a Spiritual experience. Interestingly, in today’s Gospel, Jesus uses the word “vision” to describe what happened on the mountain.

If we cannot use words, then we are only left with images, symbols, and allusions to express to others what we have experienced. It is possible that Matthew used Moses, Elijah and the cloud descending on the mountain to tell us that what was experienced by Jesus and the others was truly ‘of God’. By using these very powerful Old Testament images those reading would know, without doubt, that it was God who ‘spoke’ on the mountain, and that what was said was both comforting and affirming.

Much more important than ‘what happened?’ is the question, ‘why did it happen?’ In other words, why did God choose to ‘speak’ to Jesus and the others at this particular time and in this particular way?

As well as being exhausted by the constant demands of the crowds following him, Jesus was also aware of the growing animosity he was facing from the Jewish authorities, particularly the Pharisees. Just before the ‘Transfiguration’, in all the Gospels, we notice Jesus talking more and more about his possible death.

Antagonism, jealousy, sniping, and attempts to trap him into saying something contrary to Jewish Law, were increasing and Jesus did not need to be a prophet to realise that his life was in imminent danger. His talking to his apostles about his, possibly inevitable death, without doubt express his own fears and anxieties at that time. Frequently, times of fear and anxiety are accompanied by doubts about the wisdom of what we are doing. We can easily imagine all of these emotions battling within Jesus as he climbed the mountain.

More than anything else the experience he had on the mountain was one of affirmation and comfort.

For Jesus to ‘hear’ God say to him, “This is my son, my beloved. Listen to him…” must have filled Jesus with a huge sense of relief and support. It must also have been a reassurance that he was doing what God was asking of him. The words ‘spoken’ by God during the Transfiguration are almost identical to the words spoken by God at Jesus’ baptism. Once more this is clear affirmation that nothing has changed. The work he began at his baptism continues, and he is fulfilling his Father’s will.

It is the experience of the Transfiguration that gives him the strength and courage he needs to carry on into Jerusalem. It sustains him through his suffering and death.

For Peter, James and John, this experience was also an affirmation. They too saw the growing danger of being associated with Jesus. If Jesus experienced doubts, surely his followers experienced them even more strongly. By sharing in the experience of Jesus on the mountain they too were reassured than they could “listen to him”, and that they, too, were “beloved” of God.

All of us have times when fears, anxieties and doubts trouble us. We may doubt ourselves, what we are doing, or what we are planning to do. Sometimes we may think that our fears and doubts are nothing compared to those of Jesus. This is not true. The fear experienced by a child who loses sight of his/her mother in a busy shopping centre is no different to that experienced by a person being led out to execution.

The true miracle of the Transfiguration is not what happened to Jesus on the mountain, but that God also wishes to say to each one of us, in our own times of fear and doubt, “You are my child, my beloved. You enjoy my favour.”

And remember this: Before he could experience the Transfiguration Jesus had to make the effort to climb the mountain, to get away by himself. He had to want to ‘talk’ to God and he had to want to ‘hear’ God ‘speak’ to him.

Maybe it is impossible for us to find a mountain to climb, and maybe it is impossible for us to find time to climb it. But we can find our own ‘mountain’ closer to home. It only needs to be a place where we can be alone with God – a beach to walk on, a river to stroll by, a garden shed where we will not be disturbed, even lying on my bed with the door closed.

Wherever our mountain is; there God awaits us.

Many thanks,

Brian 

If you have any comments, questions or thoughts on this scripture reflection, please feel welcome to email me at b.maher@oblates.ie

His face shone like the sun