Transforming Hope

"Jesus took Peter, James and John and led the  up to 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." -[Mark 9: 2-10].


I like to think that Jesus' transfiguration was a total, generous and miraculous gift from God, BEFORE that painful and despairing day of Jesus' Passion. All my life, I have seen that God is extravagantly generous to me, before I even need Him!

Jesus' transfiguration was no doubt something that Jesus needed, before his agonizing death, when the world rejected Him and cruelly hung Him on the cross to die.

Jesus' transfiguration was no doubt something that His disciples needed as well. Only, well, their reaction was to get busy making tents.  It was so dazzlingly beautiful up on the mountain top, with Jesus in His shimmering glory, they wanted to stay there.

The very real implication as Christians, is that we may have to leave the mountain top, but His glory travels with us. Jesus' transfiguration is a Promise for all of us, paid in advance!  His glory is our outlook and our way of life. His transfiguration transforms us, and informs us as His followers.

It has been said that we Christians are an "Easter People". We look past all the violence and hate and despair on earth. We are promised in advance, what glory is ours to come in the next life.

To that end, it almost does not matter what happens to us in this life, or who is against us. As Paul said in Romans 8: 31B-34, " Brothers and sisters: For if God is with us, who can be against us? . . . Who will bring a charge against God's Chosen Ones?"

I had this way of thinking, even as a child. There were days when my mother gave me four-day-old leftovers, barely warmed, for dinner, and told me, 'Eat that!' I could not gag it down, so I picked at what I could eat and left the rest. I knew full well that there was other, good food in the house, but no such nurturance was offered to me.

I began to figure out on what days this awful, force-fed food came. On those days of privation, at age five,  I realized I would have to find food elsewhere. So, I ate more in the school dining hall that day, or I had a snack at a neighbor's house. My family's "punishment-by-food" could not rattle me.

Nor could their attempts to blackmail me, by offering sums of money for certain behaviors. Their money became irrelevant to me.

When a sibling called me ugly every day and I received black eyes, my parents told me that I was too "sensitive". I simply left the house then. I sat deep inside the forsythia bush in our front yard, her yellow buds sheltering and caressing me.

By age ten, I stopped speaking. I had nothing to say. I could not argue with them, I would not win, they had all the worldly power. By not speaking, I would not give them Myself.

God was in the silence. I stripped away all the false rhetoric about how there was no God, and how Christians were losers. After I had lost food, physical safety in my own home, respect for who I was as a daughter, I still had God. With God alone, they had no hold on me.

So, I bided my time. By age 13, I was saving my babysitting money, one dollar at a time. Every day, I got up and worked towards a better tomorrow. I worked very hard in school to earn all A's. I would need top grades to get my education, so I could support myself later on. I lived on Hope. Where my family refused to say,' I Love You', I feasted on Hope.

The deacon who teaches my Biblical School class says that Hope is subversive. Hope is not a cynical acceptance of what IS. Hope refuses to accept the ugly, desperate, violent situation in which we find ourselves. The deacon says, "When people truly believe in Hope, they are unstoppable!"

Hope can topple dictatorships. Hope can bring down walls. Hope can see the future as something real and tangible to be grasped. Hope gives GOD the last word!

You can take everything away from me, and I did lose so very much. But I always assumed that the future would bring me a transformed life.

When Jesus died on the cross, He was denied food, given only a reed soaked in vinegar. He was stripped of His clothing, He was naked. He was stripped of all respect, called names. He was mocked for not being able to walk down from the cross, His very power was questioned. His identity was taken away, as He was mocked for daring to call Himself "The Messiah", and for calling God His Father.

The deacon says that "Hope is the centerpiece of the Christian Faith. We do not live and suffer and die into Nothingness. We simply transform."--- We live and transmute and transform and convert, as beings drawing ever closer to God -- all of our lives.

We are Resurrection people, as Christians. Even as humans drag us down, God raises us up.  Our Hope propels us towards God. I pray that you never let go of this Gift-- for Hope is Life!

[Related Postings: "Transfiguration", March 20, 2011; "Transfiguration of Christ",  March 5, 2012; "My Transformation", February 24, 2103].

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