If you’ve ever been to the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica, you know how glorious it is. There are tons of mosaics, statues, and all sorts of marble to look at. For me, though, I always found myself glancing at something else- the crowning jewel of the cathedral, which in my mind was the organ. The pipes that crown the top of the sanctuary above the altar were always just too enticing for me. I remember vividly how much I wanted to play that organ too, all the way through seminary. A few years ago, an opportunity to play it finally arose to play it. I was actually sort of terrified in approaching that moment- would this organ be everything I expected? Would it be as glorious as I had hoped.
No. It was even better. I found myself playing on it for well over an hour, and was just thrilled at the experience. It truly showed me just some of what I’d have to expect an organ in heaven would sound like.
Now, while that might be an experience that only I may look forward to, we all have things that are on our bucket list- moments of glory. When we finally get to approach one of them, it finally shows us the full weight or the full depth of the experience, or that “glory” that we were anticipating. We walk away changed from that experience, if we let it.
What if- just what if- the greatest glory that could be on our bucket list, though, is currently staring us in the face?
The first reading comes to us from the book of Genesis, and it tells the story of the moment that God announced to Abraham his unique fatherhood. It brings an immense amount of joy to the human heart when one is told they will be a father of one child, so imagine Abraham’s joy when he is told that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars. The Lord challenged Abraham to look up and count them if he could- a feat that would have been difficult to say the least. So what does this mean? Well, this means that “father Abraham” is entrusted with an important position- as the first Jew and the father of all others. So he became a father, not just of Isaac later on through his faith, but also an entire nation of people. This resulted in an exchange- Abraham made a sacrifice to the Lord- and the Lord gave him something in return. The scriptures tell us he gained a nightmare of sorts- but this actually was a part of the bigger vision, where the Lord also told Abraham about the land they were to inherit. The darkness was countered by the light.
This is where the responsorial psalm plugs in well, and continues to bring about a further illustration of what the Lord is doing for His people: the Lord is my light and my salvation. He is the one who enables us to see- and He is the one who enables us to live, both now and forever.
The second reading comes to us from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians. His objective in this portion of the letter is quite clear- conform your conduct to ours. But why? St. Paul answers, and in a powerfully vulnerable way: there are many who should be following the way, but are not following and instead are setting themselves up as enemies of the Cross of Christ. That doesn’t mean that we would say that they are actively going to war against Christ, at least in an externally visible way, such as a battle, but they are not interested in Christ’s commandments- and His salvation. So, where are they going? Destruction. Who are they following? Their stomach. What will be their glory? Their shame. Paul tells us that they occupy themselves with only earthly things.
However, it should not be the same with us! What should be the case instead is that we occupy ourselves with heaven, so that we pursue our Lord, Jesus Christ. Now, here comes a moment where we might misunderstand: maybe this means the body is bad? No, it can be misused but it is not inherently bad! Paul continues on- Christ will transform our lowly body to be like His glorified Body! So… be like Paul- whose love and what he longs for is his joy and crown, and thus he works to stand firm in the Lord.
Finally, we move to the Gospel, and we join up with Jesus, Peter, James, and John, ascending a mountain to pray. Not too much unusual about that. What is unusual though is that Jesus’s face changes in appearance, and His clothes change to a dazzling white. Two men appear with Him- Moses and Elijah, and they appear in glory as well and speak with Christ, about the exodus, and about what He was to accomplish. Now, are the disciples at this very moment paying attention? Actually, no they aren’t. The scriptures let us know of their humanity in this moment- they had been overcome by sleep, but they are starting to wake up. As the transfiguration starts to draw to a close, Peter speaks out in a way that doesn’t make sense- at least it doesn’t seem to at first. He wants to stay right in this moment! Yet, there comes a cloud that speaks in a magnificent voice, and they became frightened by that cloud and what it says: “this is my beloved Son! Listen to Him!” After the voice, Jesus was alone with them- the veil had descended again, and they are completely silenced by what they had seen, and so silenced in fact that they couldn’t even speak about what they had seen.
Now, as with so many passages of scripture, this seems like something that would be splendid to experience, but far removed from us. And yet, it actually isn’t something removed from our experience at all. We all are to experience Christ’s glory, even if not fully now, in the life to come. But this opens up some things for us to consider as we read the Gospel:
First, notice, the companions of Jesus- Peter, James and John- they had been overcome by sleep. They almost missed this moment of glory. It would seem like something we should be critical of them for, until we realize we sleep through a lot ourselves. It isn’t just sleep that we struggle with, but many things make us unresponsive to Christ’s presence and glory! If it isn’t literally sleep, it could be that we are exhausted. This life is so long and we have so many things going on. It sometimes feels like we are barely alive. Or, we are experiencing stress, and it seems like that will never end. We are overstimulated, and just can’t respond to anything around us. Perhaps it is sorrow in our life, or even sorrow that has turned us to anger, and so we start to become bitter, and unresponsive, even to God. Perhaps it is our own laziness- we can’t even get off our own duff to recognize God for a while, and so we’ve grown apathetic. We are asleep also.
However, Christ doesn’t leave us there, and that is where this moment of waking comes to them- they finally see His glory! While they are sitting there coming to, they see that the veil is gone, and they behold Christ in His glory. This is not an illusion, but this is His actual glory, it is simply usually veiled from them. As they see it, notice, Peter simply wants to stay in that moment. He beholds the vision and it is so peaceful and joyous that he wants to staple it all down with three tents so that they don’t have to leave. Doesn’t that sound incredible? I want to be able to witness that myself! I want to see what Peter saw, and never leave myself- and maybe you also have that desire. So, that vision is there- but it does leave, but only for a time. We will be able to see Christ for all of eternity in this way, as Peter does now, in the kingdom of Heaven.
The final consideration that I wish to draw out this week is this- after they beheld the glory- it changed their life. Now, we might expect that this made everything great and peachy, but we know shortly after this Jesus goes to Jerusalem to suffer. So why the vision of His glory? There are so many reasons that we could posit, but one of many is that they needed that glory to get them through moments of sorrow. They need to see Christ’s glory, to help them see it again in the kingdom of Heaven.
What does that mean for us? Well, I’d simply put it as this question: what is it that is keeping us from seeing that glory right now? The list of possibilities of what blocks us from seeing Christ’s glory, or even God’s own plan for us, like Abraham received from God. Yet, we need to be honest with those things and confront them. The temptation is all too powerful to sleep. What happens when we sleep in the spiritual life? Well, we might miss God’s plan, and other things as well. Why is Paul warning the church in Philippi in tears? He knows what happens when one sleeps- they miss Christ’s glory, now, and for eternity. That is obviously very less than good! If you’ve ever had the experience of weeping over someone, likely you can identify with that. Yet, we are often the ones who are struggling and make ourselves to be gods, or at least we try to. Maybe it is that you’re exhausted. Maybe there is stress. Maybe anger. Maybe sorrow. Maybe there is even a touch of laziness we are struggling with. Whatever it is- that blocks us from Christ filling us with a vision of His glory?
What is the answer then? Push those things aside. Even if you are struggling to find meaning and purpose- or even if you are stuck in your own self-made vision of happiness- it will fade! You will never, never, ever find happiness apart from Christ and His sacraments! That is true for you, it is true for me, it is true for everyone! We need Him- we need His grace- we need to see His Glory! But that requires some degree of sacrifice on our part. That requires us to wake up, and give Christ’s glory a chance. Are you and I willing to do it?
In life, we can experience some pretty “glorious” things, whether an organ at the cathedral, or in something we check off our bucket list. Too many times that glory is far better than we might have expected! However, there is no glory better than what Christ has in store for us.
It’s time to wake up my brothers and sisters. Are you and I ready to see Christ’s glory, and to let that glory change our lives for the better?
