By Fr Dexter Brereton, CSSp
Luke 9: 28-36
The Gospel reading this weekend reminds us that the heavenly Christ is the same as the suffering Jesus. Today we read Luke’s account of the transfiguration which places these two aspects of Jesus life, suffering and glory, side by side as it were. In this exquisite tale, the three disciples Peter, James and John are led up a mountain by Jesus to pray. There as he prayed “the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning. Suddenly there were two men there talking to him; they were Moses and Elijah appearing in glory, and they were speaking of his passing which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem.” Moses and Elijah here symbolize the Law and the Prophets and their appearance with Jesus in this vision of the disciples indicates that Jesus would be the fulfillment of all the expectations of the Jewish people. In the midst of the glorious appearance of Moses the great law-giver and the Prophet Elijah, there is talk at the same time of Jesus “passing which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem,” a reference to his suffering, death and resurrection.
We too share in this double-reality of suffering and death. Cross and Crown, Gall and Glory are closely commingled in human life. As with Jesus, the great and wonderful experiences such as the Transfiguration serve a useful purpose, to ground us and protect us as we prepare to enter experiences that are truly difficult and marked by suffering. Here is a story from several years ago that came to mind as I read and reflected on the Word this weekend.
The death, in the early to mid-nineties of Fr David Timiney at his own hands, struck the parish of St Joseph’s Scarborough Tobago like a thunderclap. Originally from England and first entering a traditionalist religious order, Fr David had become incardinated into the Archdiocese of Port of Spain and was assigned to Tobago. Once in Scarborough, Fr David, with his love for traditionalist liturgy and the Latin language made quite an impact on the parishioners of St Joseph and all apparently went well till the morning that he was discovered hanging in the old presbytery. The then Archbishop of Port of Spain Anthony Pantin was forced to make one or two trips to Tobago to console the people of God and make some public statement in the face of this rare and possibly unique event in the life of the Archdiocese. As a seminarian with the Holy Ghost Fathers at the time, I was tasked with driving our Archbishop to and from the airport and spoke with him at length about his impressions. There was one statement he made about Fr David’s death that resonated in my memory as I read today’s Gospel. The Archbishop said to me: “You know I had just celebrated my silver anniversary as Archbishop of Port of Spain and I was so happy and I said ‘Lord, what more could I ask?’ Little did I know that the Lord in his wisdom was preparing me for this.’ For Archbishop Pantin, the glorious transfiguration experience of the celebration of his silver jubilee as Archbishop served as a preparation for the passion experience of the death by suicide of one of his beloved priests.
Our earthly lives are a mixture of joy and sorrow. After the mountain of the transfiguration comes the valley of the passion, but after this passion, comes the unattainable peak of the resurrection. Let us always remember that with God’s grace, human life moves ever upwards from sorrow and death to glory and fulfillment. While we await our final transformation however, we pray with all those who, like us, go through experiences of grace and of sadness. May our experiences of grace serve to remind us that eventually it is joy and fulfillment and life with God that will be our everlasting reward. Amen.
