I had one of the most remarkable experiences of my life lately! Now, for those of you live in the United States what happened may not be regarded as spectacular, however coming from Ireland, it ranks as one of the most eventful happenings that I have ever been party to. Recently, I was in St Louis, Missouri, as part of a preaching course I am involved in. Travelling all day from Ireland, by time I got to the residence in St Louis I was really tired. I greeted some of the other members of the course and promptly went to bed, grateful for the rest, and feel aspeep. All of a sudden I was woken by a sound I had never heard before. It was a siren and it was accompanied by a voice you expect to hear at a train station. So what is the most sensible thing to do when you hear a siren in the middle of the night? You guessed it, I went back to sleep! There must be a train coming, we were near a train line. After a few minutes, this siren went off again, this time accompanied by a knock on my door, my name being called by a colleague, with the message "You gotta get up. There's a tornado warning! He have to go to the basement!" Well, as you can imagine, having never experienced anything like this before, there was a mixture of terror and excitement. When I saw the worried faces of the locals, the excitement was moderated and the fear exacerbated. We proceeded to the shelter until the storm passed. Luckily, there was no funnel in our immediate area, but for a period of time the threat was real, and the potential for danger high. The moral of the story: when the voice comes you have to listen!
The Gospel today presents us with a dramatic encounter with Jesus. I can imagine the three apostles climbing up the slopes of Mt Tabor. No doubt some of them were complaining. Why do we have to go up this stupid mountain? Could he not just bring us out on the lake? Its so hot....etc etc. After the climb, after cooling down and taking in the view something extraordinary happened - they got a glimpse of heaven. A friend of mine and I were talking about the Transfiguration. He pointed out to me that one of the Fathers of the Church once stated that what the Apostles saw on the mountain was how Jesus looked all the time, only that on this occasion their eyes were opened. It was not as if Jesus was transfigured, they were changed. After all this big climb they were given the privilege of seeing Jesus, true God and true man in the company of some of the greatest figures from their history, and what were they talking about? What he was to do in Jerusalem. Already the stage was being set for the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets. Jesus was heading towards the Cross, by which humanity would be transfigured for ever.
When a tornado warning goes off in the middle of the night, you are best advised to take heed. Today we hear the voice from heaven saying "This is my beloved Son in which I am well pleased; listen to Him." As we journey through Lent we are given a chance to listen. The climb of Lent is often hard. The fasting, the prayer, the almsgiving can feel burdensome and difficult, but through them we have chance to get to know Jesus more and more. Through the discipline of Lent, everyone of us has the opportunity to allow Christ open our eyes, so that we can see Him as he really is, and allow ourselves the possibility of transformation and change.
Ss. Peter, James and John must have been terribly shaken by what they had seen and heard. They had been going around with this Jesus for a while now. They had seen the miracles, the healings. They had heard him speak and were moved to their depths, but now they had experienced Him in another way. Would they be ever able to relate to him in the same way again? And to top it all they couldn't even tell anyone. They were too were changed.
If we allow Him, God will give us the grace to listen to His Son. We will be able to see Him as he really is, to follow Him to the Cross and witness to the Resurrection. Lent gives us the space, time and opportunity to listen.
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I am reminded of the words of the Adoro Te, when St Thomas says something like, on the Cross the only thing that was hidden was your divinity, in the Eucharist the only thing that is hidden is your humanity.
And if you were wondering what a tornado siren, plus voice sounds like...!
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