Transfiguration

Matthew 17: 1 – 3

Jesus took Peter and the brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face. His clothes were filled with light. Then they realised that Moses and Elijah were also there in deep conversation with him.

I always felt sorry for Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz. She tried so hard to share the wonders of her adventure, and all she got from her Aunt Em and others were bemused stares. “Sure, sure,” they said. “You got bumped on the noggin and your imagination went wild”.

Too bad someone didn’t warn her, as Jesus warns Peter, James, and John in this week’s gospel, “Do not tell the vision to anyone”. I know how Dorothy must have felt. In my last year at high school I went on a retreat that was life-changing. We became aware of our own spiritual depth and the surprising depth of the goofy buddies we thought we knew so well. Like the apostles, we had a fresh experience of God.

And then we go home. I couldn’t wait to tell my family what I’d seen, heard, and felt. But they hadn’t been on retreat. They’d been washing dishes, mowing the lawn, paying bills, and worrying what to have for dinner. And so my words failed. I began to wonder if it was all just a crazy dream.

Through my own experience, I’ve come to know that Jesus wasn’t afraid his followers were going to let some special secret out of the bag. He was warning them that talking about something so sacred, so soon, wouldn’t deepen the experience. It would make it seem to fade away.