August 6, 2023 (Feast of the Transfiguration)

by Fr. Xavier Lavagetto, O.P.

[This is the text composed by the homilist prior to delivering the homily.]

Jesus asked, “And who do you say that I am?” And Peter, with more bravado than wit, answered: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” … That sparked their imaginings. What fanciful dreams danced in their head about the kingdom and their role in it. Jesus proceeds to tell them he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, die, and be raised. One would have thought Peter would have listened to Jesus, but no. “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” ... Peter and every one of them didn’t get it. ... Of course, they don’t get it! We can all be so dense!

Their dreams were set on a different glory of the here, now. … It was the kind of glory you can literally take to the bank, put you on the front page, and give you a share in power and rule. … And they couldn’t let go of that dream! …Why even on the road to Jerusalem, they argued who would be number one.

So, Jesus took his executive team, Peter, James, and John, to the mountaintop. He gave them a Moses-like experience; they were engulfed in a protecting cloud and heard God’s voice. “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him, I am well pleased; listen to him!” God was up front, close and personal and frightening! … “When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.”

That experience didn’t stop Peter from denying or James from fleeing, though John remained faithful and loving. I can well understand the ten apostle’s flight and Peter’s denial. … I can see myself in them. … Fear is a potent, and at times, a freedom-robbing force. … What kept them hanging in Jerusalem that Saturday and Sunday. … I would have been out of Dodge in a heartbeat. I wouldn’t want be next on the hit list.

Something of Jesus’ deeds and words made them linger.

The experience was not for the moment but for later when they had grapple with their experiences. … Jesus was more than they bargained for, and God’s plan was not what they imagined.

Jesus’ shameful death troubled many of Matthew’s community and other would-be believers. If Jesus did the Father’s will, why did God seemingly abandon him? … … That is backward, it is God in Jesus who is refusing to abandon us!

Jesus follows us into our brokenness, into our suffering, into our dying, into hell itself to call us to Himself and to new life. He does the one act of love that cannot be explained except by love … dying for us. … Three points are being made:

Point one: The Christ of the Resurrection was “the Jesus” before the crucifixion. The Risen Jesus is not some new reality but a now-revealed reality.

Point two: The Jesus of the Crucifixion is not trying to persuade the Father, but the Christ sent by the Father to persuade and capture us in his love. He goes into our depths.

Point three: We are to listen to Jesus and follow him through our suffering and death into his divinity.

I have sworn lifelong opposition to anything that portrays Jesus as trying to persuade God to give us slack. It is God in Jesus who is trying to persuade us by pouring his life into us.

What if you and I took seriously what happens when Jesus puts himself into our hands to be eaten and drunk? Jesus invading your entire self is no mere symbol. On the Mount of Transfiguration, you glimpse not only who Jesus always was but whom you are to become … sons and daughters of the Father.

What does this ask of you?... Really listen to Jesus! Everything depends on it.

God is not over there, but in here, in you, sustaining and calling you. Transfiguration is God’s doing, but our willingness to be transformed is ours. Stephen Covey describes spiritual intelligence using three words: integrity, meaning, and voice. Integrity is being true to your highest values. Meaning is living it in actual service. Voice is your aligning work to your unique calling and gifts. But we have to break out of the straight jacket of imagination like Peter, James, and John. They had to be pried open and transformed by new experiences, which were Transfiguration, Crucifixion, and Resurrection.

I was tempted to have you share with your neighbor some story of transformation in your life or in another's. We need to break out of our limited imaginations. … Shared stories do that! … Allow me to this story of transformation.

[Extracts from the Washington Post, Dateline: July 21, 2023]

What were the chances? Thousands of miles from home, in a foreign land devastated by war, old friends bumped into each other… It was Thanksgiving Day, 1945, when two U.S. Army soldiers met unexpectedly in Mannheim, Germany. … [T]hey had sung together only a few years earlier in a musical group back in high school in New York City.

The young men decided to spend the rest of the day together, attending a church service and then having a turkey dinner. … Their impromptu reunion was cut short just before the meal.

An Army officer blasted the two soldiers — one Black and the other White — with a hate-filled rant for being together in public. In the segregated military of the day, the two men were not allowed to socialize. …

“This officer took out a razor blade and cut my corporal stripes off my uniform right then and there. … He spit on them and threw them on the floor, and said, ‘Get your ass out of here!’”

He was reassigned from Special Services to Graves Registration, where he dug up the bodies of American soldiers killed in combat for reburial in military cemeteries. The experience “was just as bad as it sounds,” …

The White soldier’s experiences in the Army had a profound effect on him. The 19-year-old corporal — who survived the horrors of combat and witnessed unspeakable atrocities while liberating Nazi death camps — vowed to become a pacifist and to work for racial harmony.

Anthony Dominick Benedetto made good on his promise when he later marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., under his professional name: Tony Bennett. The experience prompted the legendary singer of jazz songs and American standards, who died Friday at 96, to speak out for peace and equality for the rest of his life. “I couldn’t get over the fact that they condemned us for just being friends, and especially while we served our country in wartime.”

Don’t be locked into yourself. Cross over to the other! Transformation begins in hearing and responding so that God can transfigure to be Jesus-image bearers.

God crossed over to us to bring us to himself. He invites you to hear his story and others, to listen, to learn, and to respond. connect. Share stories, pray stories, and become Jesus’ new story.