Collect for Monday in the Fourth Week of Lent
O Lord our God, in your Holy Sacraments you have given us a foretaste of the good things of your kingdom: Direct us, we pray, in the way that leads to eternal life, that we may come to appear before you in that place of light where you dwell forever with your saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
What to do with a Vision:
The Transfiguration and what follows
Early this morning as I looked outdoors, the sky was transformed by beauty. The sunrise offered an Easter morning, instead of the ordinary gray dawn. Yet before I’d even finished my coffee, the colors had faded and winter returned.
I should apologize. Anyone who has had a spiritual experience knows that it cannot be reduced to an allegory. Nor can the kingdom Glory which transfigured our Lord on the mountain be compared to natural beauty, either spiritually or theologically. The Transfiguration parallels the Resurrection, the theologian cries… glimmering with promise as the disciples journey between two painful and confusing predictions of Jesus’ death.
“Tell no one about the vision until after…” Jesus directs. When Matthew adds this word “vision” to Mark’s account, he treats it as a spiritual experience. The Holy Spirit encounters some souls, preparing them with visions, or strange knowledge. If you have them, you know yourself to be among these mystics. If not, there were only three watching on the mountain that day. “Tell no one.” Guard these things in your heart as blessed Mary did. When the questions come, the scribes, Elijah?, take the questions to Christ. It will not be clear, as Peter’s quick interpretation shows.
What else not to do? Build dwellings. Faithful Israelite, responding with the Feast of the Tabernacles to the vision of Messiah with Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the Prophets.) Do you recognize this Peter? Have you seen this tendency we sometimes have to enshrine the places where we have perceived God’s glory: Anglo Catholic ritual, Cursillo fervor, those long silent hours at the monastery. In my church it’s the music: we all love best that music where God came to us and we knew it.
Perhaps we do this because we long for that encounter. “This is my beloved Son… Listen.” Pay attention. He will yet, perfect what you saw today. Live in kingdom hope.
Some do: a father comes and hopes for his son to be healed of his seizures. Some don’t: the disciples cannot. This raises for me a lot of questions. Which of us, however faithful, could heal epilepsy? Why call it demonic? Medical knowledge at the time argued “it is not, in my opinion, any more sacred or divine than other diseases” (Hippocrates LCL2.127-83). Perhaps the disciples had their own questions. They cannot heal the boy. They have “little faith.” So… faith must not be this vision of Jesus transfigured on the mountain.
But it turns out, “little faith” is not a terrible judgment. Faith like a seed is sufficient for many things: following Jesus into Holy Week, paying head-taxes to our religious institutions that we may not scandalize them, turning again to Christ Jesus in the prayer of faith.
The Rev. Paula Harris
Rector
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