SATURDAY, DEC 16
Matthew 17:9A, 10-13
As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to
anyone until the son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Then the disciples asked him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
He said in reply, “Elijah will indeed come and restore all things;
but I tell you that Elijah has already come,
and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased.
So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.”
Then the disciples understood
that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.
Grace: I ask for the grace to know Jesus in a deeper way that I may abundantly love and follow him.
German poet Rainer Maria Rilke was fascinated with the art of Cezanne, considered the father of modernism, yet he did not understand this new artistic expression. Returning many times to view Cezanne’s exhibit, he struggled until one day he wrote, “Looking for a long time, but nothing, and then suddenly, one has the right eyes!” Only after much open-hearted viewing was he able to receive the gift the artist offered. It can be the same with us as we seek to understand God’s love. Sometimes we too must look more deeply and openly in order to encounter “Emmanuel”, God with us.
Matthew 17: 9a, 10-13 serves as a commentary on our temptation to respond to Christ with our own agenda. Jesus tells his disciples “do not tell anyone what you have seen!” Why? Does he fear the disciples have not yet integrated the deeper ramifications of the event into their lives? Jesus knows us well. He knows that in our anxiety we want a spiritual path full of certainties and firmly pitched tents. We are quick to interpret, to label and to set into stone what we see and think we understand. Jesus uses the disciple’s question about Elijah to instruct them in his agenda of love. Elijah, he says, has indeed returned in the person of John the Baptist and John’s suffering and death foreshadows his own. Until the disciples have eyes to see that the glory of Christ begins by passing through suffering and death they cannot know or understand him.
With love Christ patiently tutors our inner eye to see the fuller Mystery. Our daily giving and receiving of love transforms our limited vision. God remains Mystery, always unfolding and known only through love. Any one insight about God can never touch the fullness of God. Modeling ourselves on the suffering servant opens us to “know” God. Advent urges us to come down from our mountain and take the road to Bethlehem where we will see Love Incarnate with fresh eyes and hearts.
For Reflection and Prayer:
In your imagination, see yourself with Christ descending the mountain after witnessing the Transfiguration. Jesus turns to you and says, “Tell no one what you saw”. What insight, certainty or aspect of your life is Christ inviting you to reconsider or to grow in deeper knowledge?
Remember a time when you received an act or expression of love from God or from someone which led you into deeper knowledge or understanding of the ways of God. Express gratitude for this. If you are not able to so recall, remember that God is always with you.
To close this time, you may wish to meditate on the poem below:
The Last Supper, by Rainer Maria Rilke:
They are assembled, astonished and disturbed
round him, who like a sage resolved his fate,
and now leaves those to whom he most belonged,
leaving and passing by them like a stranger.
The loneliness of old comes over him
which helped mature him for his deepest acts;
now will he once again walk through the olive grove,
and those who love him still will flee before his sight.To this last supper he has summoned them,
and (like a shot that scatters birds from trees)
their hands draw back from reaching for the loaves
upon his word: they fly across to him;
they flutter, frightened, round the supper table
searching for an escape. But he is present
everywhere like an all-pervading twilight-hour.
The Contributor:
Deborah Hanus, D.Min., a widow and grandmother, encounters God in art, literature and writing, and in the beauty of and care of God’s world. A teacher and spiritual director she was the founder of the Center for Spiritual Growth and the Contemplative Life. (1990-2015). Deborah is a docent at the San Antonio Museum of Art where she gives tours on religion and art. Find her at deborahhanus@yahoo.com
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Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.