Seeing through faith

The debate on Jesus Christ's true identity during the past 2000 years has been never-ending. Jesus himself sparked the debate when he asked his disciples: "Who do people say that the Son of Man is? Who do you say that I am?" immediate preceding the transfiguration account in Matthew that we read every year on this second Sunday of Lent. The disciples told Jesus what people thought and what their opinion was. Jesus then cuts short their discussion by taking three of them up the mountain and granting them this vision.

Jesus' transfiguration on the mountain is a milestone on his journey to Jerusalem. Peter, James and John see Jesus transfigured on the mountain. Yet Jesus here was only on his way to Jerusalem, where they were to see him 'disfigured', without form. For the three disciples, it was a deep experience which at first filled them with awe, then with fear. The Jesus they see on the mountain is not the Jesus they knew. This was a very special revelation. They see what their eyes had never seen, and hear what their ears had never heard.

The eyes of faith can see much more than we normally can see. This Gospel shows one side of the coin; it is the taste of the unknown that Jesus grants to these three disciples. He indicates and shows beforehand what we are called to become with him.

Like the disciples on the mountain, we may be tempted to think that reality and truth consist only of life's minuses, of what hurts and wounds. We are sceptical about visions and visionaries. In our culture we are made to believe that believing in what we do not see and hoping in things to come may be alienating from real life issues.

But in the midst of their queries and doubts, Jesus grants the three disciples a taste of the unknown. In the first reading, this same unknown was presented to Abraham when the Lord challenges him to leave his country. Abraham was asked to leave his security zone - his father's house, his family and his country - because there was a land which God promised to show him and give to him.

Kierkegaard says that faith is always an exodus from a domicile. Faith is always leaving behind our securities. Many a time we come to discover that our apparent securities are no security at all. Even religion, at times, can falsely serve as our security zone.

But God's real presence in our lives is always a gift, never a given. It is always an experience that should inspire awe and fear. Paul Tillich writes: "If you never run away from God, I wonder who your God is."

The transfiguration account is an anticipation of Jesus' future glory. With Peter, John, and James, we are granted similar visions which perhaps are lost in the cacophony of daily hustle. That explains why Jesus asks the disciples, coming down from the mountain, not to tell anyone about the vision. Such moments of revelation in life need to be treasured, because that's the only way Jesus can truly be encountered.

Otherwise our approach to Jesus would remain intellectual and consequently peripheral. Never deep enough to let him 'transfigure' our brokenness into blessings.