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Connections&
August 6, 2000
Transfiguration of the Lord
Jesus was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach 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.
Mark 9: 2-10
Just can't bear it
A young polar bear asked, "Mommy, am I a real polar bear?"
"Well, of course you are," she replied.
"Dad," the cub asked next, "am I a real polar bear?"
"Yes, son, you're a real polar bear."
A few days later, the little polar bear asked his parents, "Are grandma and grandpa real polar bears?"
A few days later, the little polar bear asked, "Are all my aunts and uncles and cousins real polar bears?"
"Of course they are!" the mother polar bear said, by now somewhat exasperated at her little cub's inquiries. Finally she asked, "Why do you keep asking if all of us are real polar bears?"
"Because," the little bear said, "I'm freezing!"
CONNECTION: Like the little polar bear trying to live up to his artic heritage, we often find it difficult to live up to our own heritage as Christians, to become the people we profess in baptism that we want to become. Today's feast of the Transfiguration confronts us with that reality. Just before they ascend the mountain to pray, Jesus confides to his friends that await them in Jerusalem -- it is news that Peter and the others have a great deal of trouble understanding and accepting. The point is all but lost on them: There can be not growth without change, there can be no victory without sacrifice, there can be no resurrection without death. Peter, caught up with the incredible sight before him, does not realize that the Jesus of the Gospel comes with a heavy price: The glorious Christ of the Transfiguration will soon become the Crucified Jesus of Good Friday. Accepting the generous God of blessing is easy, but when that God asks us to give readily and humbly to others and to forgive one another without limit or condition, then we begin to insulate ourselves from any meaningful relationship with God. But in loving one another as Christ has loved us, the divinity we behold in the Jesus of the Transfiguration becomes real and living in our lives and in the lives of those we touch. <
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