ENTERING THE STORY IMAGINATIVELY

I like to go walking in the hills with friends. When I hear today’s gospel, I imagine Jesus, Peter, James and John setting off up the hillside. So, I invite you now to use your imagination. You may like to close your eyes.

It’s not easy going uphill. Sometimes there is conversation but sometimes you’re walking single file in silence. How do you think the disciples felt? Peter, James and John knew they had a special relationship with Jesus. They must’ve been pleased to have been picked out for this climb up the hill. What were they talking about as they went up, do you think? Even when they weren’t talking because out of breath, there is a sense of companionship and being together with those who are important to you.

Now imagine when they got to the top. Jesus goes to pray and this wasn’t unusual. Maybe his three companions started off praying but they must have been drowsy, because we’re told they became heavy with sleep.

Imagine when one of them realised that something quite unusual was happening - maybe he nudged his companions, or maybe there was something in the airwaves that made them all wake up to it at the same time. Jesus is dazzlingly white, as if a light is shining out from the centre of him. They know that it is Moses and Elijah with him, two great heroes from the past. How do they know? Maybe they correspond to descriptions of what they wore or things that they carried - or maybe the three disciples just got it, by some special, spiritual insight.

To see someone from the past is a spooky experience, but Peter doesn’t seem to be fazed. He is elated and wants to try and capture the moment.

And then SUDDENLY they’re in a great cloud. They can’t see anything. They’re terrified. They can’t even see one another - maybe not even Jesus. Then they hear a great voice, saying ‘This is my Son, my Chosen One, listen to him.’

They must have fallen to their faces because the next thing we know is that when they looked up, only Jesus is there.

No cloud. No Moses and Elijah. Just the four of them, the hill and the sky.

THEIR EXPERIENCE APPLIED TO JESUS AND TO THEMSELVES

Open your eyes. If you had an experience like Peter, James and John, it would take a long time to process in your mind. They had had a glimpse of Jesus that was completely different. They could never look at him in the same way. Jesus told them not to tell anyone, but I imagine that, in any case, their experience was too deep to share with the other apostles. Maybe they couldn’t quite believe it themselves. So, when the demands of everyday life crowded back in on them, to some extent they put it out of the forefront of their mind, but they would surely recall it again from time to time. We know that they still did not understand everything Jesus said and did. When the moment of Jesus’ arrest came, they were still frightened.

After Jesus had risen from the dead, however, it really all began to make sense, as the second reading today tells us. Jesus really was the Son of God all along, even before he died and rose from the dead. Jesus really did have a special relationship with God the Father - and the Father tells us to listen to Jesus’s teaching. Having this knowledge would also change the way that they thought about themselves. They would always carry the hope that they would be reunited with Jesus, even when martyrdom was facing them. James was the first apostle to be martyred, but Peter and John would go on to teach people about the virtue of Hope.

THEIR EXPERIENCE APPLIED TO OURSELVES

Did you use your imagination? How do you feel knowing that Jesus was revealed by God in this way? You too have heard the words, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen One, listen to him.’ Remember that Peter, James and John didn’t get it straight away. So: you too go away and think about it. Is there hope in your life? If God spoke so commandingly, then we should listen to Jesus‘ teaching and hold it in our hearts. If God is so glorious and splendid, you too will share his splendour. Knowing this is true should lighten up the days of your life. Nothing can be quite the same way again.