Going Down the Mountain
“Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
‘This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.’”Mark 9:7
Every Second Sunday of Lent we hear the Transfiguration account where Jesus brings Peter, James, and John up a mountain where He is transfigured before them. Matthew and Mark emphasized that it was a high mountain and that Jesus brought those three disciples by themselves. The mountain, the high mountain, is always a place of encounter between God and man and there are times that we must be by ourselves with God — quiet prayer and solitude with God is necessary.
Peter, James, and John make up a trio that serves as an inner circle of Jesus, not of any more importance, but only a difference in role distinction perhaps. These three whom the Lord allowed to witness Him in His glory on the high mountain are the same three He asks to keep watch with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. If we are to share in the glory of Christ, we must share also in His agony. Glory is never apart from suffering. The Cross itself is both a horrific depiction of torture but also the greatest expression of God’s love to man. Love and suffering are inseparable. We know this in our lives. The cost of love is pain. Only because there is love do we feel pain. This is a reminder for the Christian life that glory and resurrection only come after suffering and the Cross. Now, back to the mountain.
If you have ever gone hiking, you may agree with me that as hard as the ascent may sometimes be, the descent may be equally difficult. It would seem like going down the mountain would be easy, but we sometimes forget to factor in the soreness in our legs, the steepness of the descent, and the terrain that pave the way down. But we must endure it because we have to get down! As much as Peter wanted to stay on the mountaintop and build tents, the Lord reminded him that they must go down. Why? Because when they went down, people were waiting for them. People with various illnesses and struggles were waiting for Jesus and the apostles to offer them healing and comfort. The Christian life is not a life of comfort on the mountaintop but a life of service and a life that is on the move (hence, we are sometimes referred to as a Pilgrim Church).
Jesus brought Peter, James, and John up the mountain to show them what awaits them — the glory of the Resurrection — and to show them the importance of prayer, of communing with God. And then He leads them down the mountain. Those “mountaintop moments” where we feel the closeness of God or moments when we feel His Presence and loving embrace are not moments that are meant to be experienced and then put into our spiritual scrapbooks. Those moments of intense consolation and closeness with God are meant to propel us into action. Those awesome moments we experience with God on the mountain ought to move us to run down the mountain to share with whomever would listen the great things that God has done in our lives! The fruit of prayer is not to go back to doing whatever we were doing, but rather a life that is transformed, transfigured even, a life that anticipates to meet the People of God and to serve them.
Brothers and sisters let us not be content with staying on the mountain because Jesus Himself did not. Let us not be content with simply fulfilling our obligations in going to Sunday Mass and then going right back to our old lives. Let us courageously go down the mountain with the Lord so that we might come to meet the people He will place in our lives. Let us share the love, mercy, joy, and consolation of God with those whom we will encounter in our daily lives. We can’t turn around and walk the other way or stay up the mountain. We must go down it. The people awaits us, brothers and sisters. The people longs to meet the Christ in us. Let’s not keep them waiting.
Click below to watch this week’s reflection.
