Reflecting on Matthew 17: 1-8
I’ve been wondering as I read Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration, what if! What if Jesus is asking us to dare to see more; to risk venturing with him beyond the well-established borders of familiarity, not for an esoteric experience, but because in this moment, in our day (which is all we have and is crucial for this planet) he needs people who are open enough, humble enough, scared yet courageous enough to see more, not for ourselves alone but for the world? On February 10th I read these words from Pope Francis’s daily reflections, “Today’s drama in the Church is that Jesus keeps knocking on the door, but from within so that we will let him out.” Dear friends, we cannot box and contain all that we are being given to see within the confines of what we have heretofore known. This does not mean that we reject all that his good and lovely from our current traditions and belief systems, but that we trust that these will be deepened and enhanced and transfigured the more we open ourselves up to the ongoing revelation of the mystery of Infinite Love. We will not understand it with our minds. We will be tempted to stop, feeling we’ve gone far enough, institutionalising only what we feel we can cope with, and so the world is robbed of what in essence it is yearning for. We can then demand that the world listens to us, because we have the truth. But there are also times when we long to hear the unmistakeable voice of God, in a deep challenging way that at the same time assures us of our belovedness. It is such assurance that, paradoxically, we are terrified of and so we tend to hide our faces. It is that assurance that gradually beautifies, glorifies, and makes more spiritual these earthen vessels (that is, you and me) so that we open the doors and the Jesus who dwells within us, this treasure, is released to be out there as well as ‘in here’. The Jesus we know and the Jesus we don’t yet know are one and the same being, mysterious yet known, the one who touches us and tells us not to be afraid. Only Jesus, yesterday, today and forever, transfigured yet ‘known’, linking heaven to earth and earth to heaven who calls us to climb with him, to watch with him, to dare to see and to listen with him, to be willing to let go enough so that the process of transformation or transfiguration can take place within us for the sake of out there, the ‘out there’ that desperately needs ‘only Jesus’ also.
Ruth Patterson
Restoration Ministries 