They were tired.  They were anxious.  They were headed for Jerusalem.  And the Master had said that it was in Jerusalem that He would be handed over to evil men to be put to death, but that on the third day, He would rise again...whatever that meant.  And the Lord Jesus knew what was in their hearts.  He knew what they had had to bear over the past three years since they had become His disciples.  But He also knew that what was about to happen in Jerusalem would shake even the strongest, even the most devoted among them.  And so He took Peter, His rock, James, who would be the first among the Twelve to give up his life, and John, His beloved disciple, and went up onto a mountain to pray.

          And today, the Second Sunday of Lent, we remember what took place up on that mountain.  We celebrate the Mystery of the Transfiguration.

          Just what did take place up on that mountain?  And who was transfigured?  Isn't the Transfiguration of Jesus just a vivid metaphor for saying that the Apostles came to see Jesus in a new light? that the real transfiguration that took place was in the Apostles' perception of who Jesus was for them?  Is the focus on Jesus or on the Apostles?  Who was transfigured?

          From St Luke's account of the Transfiguration which we hear today it is clear that Jesus is transfigured while the Apostles are asleep.  They wake up in the middle of the Transfiguration and see Jesus in glory speaking to Moses and Elijah.  It has nothing to do with how Peter, James, and John perceive Jesus.  It has everything to do with who Jesus is.  I guess you could call this my "It ain't about us, folks! It's about Jesus" homily!

           In the Transfiguration, the union of God with humanity in the one man, Jesus Christ, was made manifest in a special way.  For a few moments, the veil was drawn away, and Peter, James, and John could see the glory that is His as the Incarnate Son of God.  They were given this glimpse of reality, divine reality, in order to strengthem them for the trials that lay ahead in Jerusalem, because it was this same man who now stood before them conversing with Moses and Elijah who would soon enough be nailed to a Cross before their very eyes.

          And now, you and I stand in place of the Apostles.  Who Jesus is does not depend on how we perceive Him.  Jesus is the Incarnate Son of God, whether we believe it or not.  The reality lies in Him -- in God -- not in our perception.  How we choose to perceive the world around us does not change the fact of what God has done in the one Man, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

          And what is true of the Transfiguration is true of all the mysteries of our Faith.  The truth, the saving power, lies in God, not in how we choose to make sense of this world.  Take the Holy Eucharist, for example.  It is our Catholic faith that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ by God's doing, not by our believing it is so.  The reality of the Blessed Sacrament does not depend on whether you, or you, or even the priest consecrating believes it to be the Body and Blood of Christ.  We do believe (and woe to us if we partake in the Eucharist without believing.  We eat and drink our own condemnation, St Paul tells us) but our belief is our loving response to what God has done first in His great love for us.

          The great Mystery of the Transfiguration brings home for us who Jesus is.  In the transfigured Jesus on Mt Tabor, we see the love, the power, the glory of God Himself shining forth in our human flesh.  Jesus is the Father's pledge of eternal love for us; He is the pledge of our future redemption -- that our broken, tired, anxious flesh will one day come to be like His.  And in the person of our transfigured Lord Jesus, we see the center, the focal point of all that was, all that is, and all that will ever be.  Moses and Elijah, the two greatest prophets of the Old Testament, are there to represent all that has gone before.  The Apostles -- Peter, James and John -- are the representatives of all that is to come.  And at the Center is Jesus "wrapped in light as a robe," the meeting point of God and man, the Source and End of all that is.

          And we believe.  Not because it helps up make sense of this crazy world of ours (which it does.)  Not because it makes us feel good (which it can.)  We believe because God has spoken the Truth: This is My chosen Son.  Listen to Him.  And in believing, we too can know, as St Peter knew, that it is good, yes, it is very good for us to be here.