The Mountaintop Experience

         The transfiguration of Jesus is a mountaintop experience.  It was such a divine encounter that Peter wanted to pitch tents and remain there forever.  Whenever I experience the divine light of Jesus, I just want to remain in it and stop all else.  I long to remain in His light and love, and to cease any other existence.  But life goes on and the message to us is the same today as it was for Peter, James and John then. 

          Jesus comes down from the mountain to be with us! WOW!! Why? It didn't seem to do much good or to invoke a huge change in the culture of His time, as witnessed by the persecution and cruel death He endured. But He continued to love and to prepare His disciples for His crucifixion and the ultimate mountaintop experience of His resurrection.  He is always preparing us for what lies ahead, just as He was preparing Peter, James and John for what was forthcoming.

          Whenever I do not see results of my hard work, I can get frustrated, depressed and sometimes devastated to the point of giving up the work.  Why clean, as it won't stay clean for very long around here?  Why cook delicious home-cooked meals when it all ends up in the toilet anyway?  (Had to throw that in!)  Why exercise, I'm not losing weight and I won't be able to keep it up? Why love, people don't seem to change? Why strive for holiness in a world that doesn't value it?  Mother Teresa is credited for a poem entitled, Anyway, but it was originally written in 1968 by Kent Keith and slightly reworded by Mother Teresa for her children's home in Calcutta:

"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.  Love them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.  Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies.  Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.  Be good anyway.

Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable.  Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.  Build anyway.

People need help but will attack you if you help them.  Help them anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway."

           Climbing the mountain to have a mountain-top experience is hard work.  Whenever I focus on the climb and getting to the top, I'm distracted from my being in the light and love of Jesus who came down from the mountain to be with me. He didn't ask us to climb a mountain to encounter Him.  He basically tells us that even though our work of loving doesn't seem to make a difference to others, it does make a difference to the Spirit within us, so do it anyway!  The Holy Spirit is preparing us every day to be transfigured into Jesus' radiant light and love by His Word and Sacrament.  It is when His light and love radiates through us to our family that we experience God and the beauty of a mountaintop.

           Why is it so much easier to shine His light on our friends and strangers than it is to our own family?

"And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart.  And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light.  And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.  And Peter said to Jesus, 'Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.' He was still speaking, when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him'  When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces, and were filled with awe.  But Jesus came and touched them, saying, 'Rise, and have no fear.' And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only."  (Matthew 17:1-8)

          Mother Teresa recited this prayer every day of her life.  It is entitled, Radiating Christ, by Blessed John Henry Newman:

"Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go.  Flood our souls with your spirit and life.  Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly, that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.  Shine through us, and be so in us, that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul.  Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus!  Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as you shine; so to shine as to be a light to others; the light O Jesus, will be all from you, none of it will be ours; it will be you, shining on others through us.  Let us thus praise you in the way you love best, by shining on those around us.  Let us preach you without preaching, not by words but by our example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what we do, the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.  Amen."