Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent, February 25, 2024. Gospel: Mark 9:2-10. Theme: Learning Transfiguration Prayer
In our 2,000-year heritage of Christian spirituality, the Transfiguration of Jesus, which we hear in today’s gospel, has often been considered as a lesson in what it means to have a prayerful experience of God. Spending time in prayer is all about personal intimacy with Jesus, about coming to know Him as He really is, and in the process getting to know ourselves as we really are. This is something that Peter, James and John experienced. They went away with Jesus up the mountain and gazed upon His true glory, resting in His divinely transformed presence.
During this experience, Jesus’ true inner self, His divinity, began to shine through the flesh of His humanity. It changed His appearance; it revealed His secret identity so to speak. The disciples were caught up in this awesome revelation and when it was over, the Father’s voice directed them to listen to Jesus because He is the Beloved Son. They returned to regular life re-energized in their relationship with Christ which had been deepened, personalized, strengthened by this experience.
The Transfiguration story gives us a very good description of the type of Christian prayer that is called meditation. It’s also known by other names such as prayer of the heart, contemplation or sometimes just pondering. And it’s very different, worlds apart really, from the types of meditation we often hear about today such as yoga-mindfulness or Hindu transcendentalism. These eastern forms of meditation encourage us to empty our minds, to get in touch with our inner-energy and to focus on ourselves.
But Christian meditation is the polar opposite. It’s not about focusing on oneself or trying to be empty inside. It’s all about focusing on God and growing in our love and awareness of Him in our lives. It’s not about being empty, but about being filled up with grace, with the light, truth and peace of Christ. Christian meditation is an important way for God to become more present, more real, more meaningful and more personal in our everyday lives. By reflecting on the Transfiguration experience of Peter, James and John, we can learn the three basic steps that make-up the prayer form of meditation.
The first step is solitude. We see that Jesus brought the disciples up a mountain, away from the hustle and bustle of daily life. This teaches us that we need to intentionally take time to find someplace where we can be alone and undisturbed for prayer. We need to get away from the many distractions that life throws at us, so that we can devote quality time to our relationship with God.
The second step is to be with Jesus. We do not go to our isolated place alone. We go with Jesus and we can do this by taking up the gospels through which he is always present for us. We chose a story and imagine Jesus and the details which the story presents to our minds. We take our time with it. We ponder it. In this step, we are like those three apostles looking at the transfigured Jesus and taking it all in. We permit the image of Christ it presents to us to penetrate our minds and hearts.
Lastly, the third step is speaking with Jesus. We ask him to show us what he wants us to learn from this experience. We obey the words of God the Father and listen to his Beloved Son speaking to the ears of our heart. His words might come to us as an idea or an image that enters into our minds. We respond to Jesus like Peter did, sharing with Him our thoughts, feelings and insights into what we have encountered in our time of solitude with him.
Then, after our meditation, we return to our daily duties, treasuring this prayerful experience of Jesus in our hearts, just as Peter, James and John did when coming down off that mountain. If we practice meditation regularly, we will become more aware of the presence of God living within us by grace and faith. We will become more aware of the beautiful truth that we are called to a divine romance, so to speak, with God who is love. This will lead us to experience a personal transfiguration in our own lives as we gradually grow, day by day, to become the beloved sons and daughters of God that we were created to be.
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