WE NEED MOUNTAIN MOMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Today is the Second Sunday in Lent - Year C. 

Reflecting on today's gospel, I would like to preach on the theme that to be human we need “Transfiguration Moments.” Or if that sounds esoteric, “We human beings need mountain moments.”

By mountain moments, I mean peak experiences. I mean moments when we are transfigured. I mean moments when we see who we are and/or who the other person is in a transfigured way, in a transparent way.

In a transfiguration moment we see the big picture. We see through everything and we see God. We are exalted. 

And because the moment is so moving, we don’t want to move. We want to freeze the scene. We want to put it in our scrapbook forever. 

However, as we heard in today’s gospel, that’s unreal. We need to move on. We need to move ahead. We need to come down to  earth and get back to the ordinary from the extraordinary.

TRANSFIGURATION

"Trans" meaning across. We’ve heard the prefix in different words: transportation; transaction; transfusion; transcribe; transfer; transit; translate; transplant; transmission - and the big one in our Mass: transubstantiation. 

Transfiguration moments are moments that take us out of ourselves. They take us across time and space. They take us away from where we are. They are peace moments. They are moments when we are in a trance.

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

I hope that everyone here at least once in their life was on a mountain. I hope that everyone here had a chance sometime in their life to climb a mountain. Well, at least in a car.... We’ve all seen cars with the bumper sticker, “This car climbed Mt. Washington.”

If you are ever driving on an interstate or any highway - stress on the high - and you see a sign saying, “Scenic Overview,”  STOP!  It’s a chance to see the valleys.

Or maybe, you’ve been to New Hampshire or Colorado. You drive along and you stop the car to look out.  “On a clear day you can see forever.” “I’ve been to the mountain.”

We need mountain moments. And as a result, we can say what the friends of Jesus say, “It’s good to be here.”

MOUNTAIN MOMENTS

We need mountain moments in our life. We need transfiguration moments. To deal with the valley below. To deal with the everyday. I’ve been to the mountain. To go to the mountain to see the big picture. To see the whole picture. To see where we’ve been and where we are and where we are headed. To see the map. To see our story.

So we need mountain moments. We need feast days. We need anniversaries. We need high points. We need days off when we look back down and around. We need Sabbaticals. We need Saturdays and Sundays: Sabbath. We need time to get away from work, from TV, from noise, from everything, and be with God.

We need vacations.

We need back porches - empty houses for just me, myself, and I - long drives by ourselves.

We need mountain moments.

ALTITUDE AFFECTS ATTITUDES

When we see things from way up, small things seem smaller and even big things seem small. Airplane views give us perspective. Altitude affects attitude. Distance can give us depth.

So we need mountain moments to deal with our disintegration and  our integration. Mountain moments can help us to see it all.

We need highs, so that we can deal with our lows.

LIFE’S MOMENTS

We need to see the baby, first grandson or daughter to help us to see that all the sacrifice is, has, and will be worth while.

We need graduation moments, marriage moments, retirement parties, birthday parties, family and parish celebrations, to help us to see who we are and what we have done - that all the work is worthwhile.

MARY’S MOMENT

Mary’s moment was the Annunciation moment. She said “yes” and she was transfigured. She was able to deal with the crosses that pierced her heart. She understood in a flash, what it's all about.

She says at Cana to the waiters, what the Father said at the Transfiguration, “Listen to him.”

SCALA

We Redemptorists have often heard about our founder, St. Alphonsus’ Transfiguration moment. He was on vacation for his health on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. In front of him was a beautiful beach and perfect water. If he turned his back to the water and looked up there was a mountain above him. He walked the almost 1000 steps ["scala"] up to a little village called, “Scala” - just across from Ravello - and saw the rest of his life. He saw his dream job up there: reaching out to preach Good News to poor goat herders - to those nobody was reaching out to. Altitudes affect attitude. Heights can give us depth. Alphonsus’ life changed up on those heights. 

On a clear day, you can see forever. You can become upbeat - and then come down a new person.

So we need mountain moments. To see the valley below. We need transfiguration moments. So we can deal with Kedron and Gogatha and Calvary moments. 

BERNARD BASSET

I’m assuming that death is a transfiguration moment. We will see it all! We will know it all. Then we have all eternity to sort it out.

I say this because of what people say when they are in near death situations: “My whole life passed before me!”

I’m assuming when we die, the top moments peak. They rise to the top. They are transfiguration moments.

I still remember a moment from a late night talk show by Johnny Carson. He had Bernard Bassett, the Jesuit, on the show that night. Bernard said that when he died, he would want to see his dad first - because the older he got, the more questions he had. Don’t we all?

I’m assuming moments like that are part of the moment called “eternity”. We’ll meet Christ. And we’ll probably be like the disciples in today's gospel. We’ll want to be there for ever!

Sometimes I picture death being like the airport experience.

When we are at an airport, we see people step back when someone arrives and the family allows the most important person to see the person who just arrived  first. Husband, wife, mom, dad.  So too us, when we die our parents will step back so we can meet Christ first. The Risen One, the transfigured one, the high Christ and also the Valley Christ. The good shepherd from the hills and the carpenter from the shop.

It’s like being in a plane. Everything comes into perspective from up there.

A guy was on his first airplane flight. The guy next to him asked, “Are you nervous?” He says, “Yeah, but what really amazes me is how small the people down there are. They look like ants.” The other guy replied. “They are ants. We haven’t taken off yet.”

CONCLUSION

In the meanwhile, we still have miles and miles to go before we sleep as Robert Frost’s poem puts it, but it’s good  to do some reflecting on all this and to have a Transfiguration Moment now and then. Amen.