Reading 1DN 7:9-10, 13-14
As I watched:
Thrones were set up
and the Ancient One took his throne.
His clothing was bright as snow,
and the hair on his head as white as wool;
his throne was flames of fire,
with wheels of burning fire.
A surging stream of fire
flowed out from where he sat;
Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him,
and myriads upon myriads attended him.
The court was convened and the books were opened.As the visions during the night continued, I saw:
One like a Son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
When he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
The one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship;
all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.
Reading 2 2 PT 1:16-19
Beloved:
We did not follow cleverly devised myths
when we made known to you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received honour and glory from God the Father
when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory,
“This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven
while we were with him on the holy mountain.
Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable.
You will do well to be attentive to it,
as to a lamp shining in a dark place,
until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
Gospel MK 9:2-10
Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John,
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
“Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.
Today the Holy Mother Church celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The transfiguration is a significant event in the life of Jesus. The disciples witnessed the revelation of God’s glory and had a fore-share in the joy of God’s kingdom.
Moses and Elijah appeared to commune with Jesus as the fulfilment of the law and the prophet. The transfiguration took place to strengthen the Apostle’s faith in anticipation of the passion, to reveal to them in a powerful way the divine hand that is at work in the events that Jesus will undergo and the glory ahead of him.
The ascent unto the high mountain prepares for the ascent to Calvary. The event of the Transfiguration is an event that touches the physical and spiritual senses of the disciples who witnessed it.
- It opened their eyes:
In that powerful event, the Lord opened their eyes to see the splendour of the divinity that lies hidden in the lowly humanity of Jesus.
We all need this divine eye-opening. There are a whole lot of mysteries hidden in what seems so ordinary to us. For instance, Jesus comes to us hidden behind the appearance of the poor and needy, many of us miss the opportunity of ministering to him. The saints who dedicated their lives to taking care of the poor and the needy must have seen what most of us do not see.
At mass, a sublime divine worship that harmonises heaven and earth together takes place, we need God to open our eyes to see beyond the limitation of the senses.
Balaam was beating his horse one day for not moving unknown to him that an Angel of the Lord was in his front until the Lord removed the veil from his eyes (verse 31, cf Numbers 22:22-35).
The first reading of today is another instance of the divine eye-opening. The Lord opened the eyes of Daniel and he saw the splendour of God’s throne and the revelation of the sovereign son of man.
Let us pray to God to open our spiritual eyes so that we may see more than our physical eyes can afford to see.
- Their ears were opened:
They heard the voice of the Father. God speaks to us daily but most times we are spiritually deaf, most times too many voices and the deafening noise of the world don’t permit us to hear. No wonder, the Book of Revelation (for instance 2:7, 11,17,29) always emphasises that “he who has ears, should hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.”
We need God to always open our ears to hear instruction, direction and inspiration. Let us always pray for these prophetic ears, to hear the voice of truth in the midst of many confusing voices in the world.
- Their hearts were affected.
Jesus told them not to proclaim yet what they have seen and they kept this instruction. Obedience is one of the greatest but rarest virtues today. After hearing the voice of the Father that they must obey His beloved Son, the Son gave them the first instruction and they were able to obey. Let us beg God for a heart that obeys His word, a heart that is not willful. A heart that can bend to instruction.
- Their mouths were sanctified
I imagined how difficult it would have been for the disciples. They witnessed such a jaw-opening event. An event, which such have passed for a breaking News. Remember, they were just three of the twelve disciples, imagine the eagerness and anxiety in them to share that experience with the rest.
Jesus then warned them to tell no one what they had seen… We are told they observed the warning faithfully.
Dear friends, this is the sickness of many of us, we can’t keep secret, we talk too much, we always want to be the first to report it, we want to give the impression that we are privileged to be connected directly to the source of breaking news, privilege information puts us in distress, we are restless until we let the cat out of the bag.
Being able to regulate our words, control our expression, our manner of presentation of issues and concealing what we should not spread out is a mark of maturity, wisdom and discipline.
Happy feast of the Transfiguration to you all.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okami on Monday, August 6, 2018, to mark the feast of the Transfiguration.