God’s “Fierce Of Urgency Of Now” 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, Year B

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, February 28, 2021

The story of the Transfiguration of Jesus has charmed and dazzled Christian poets, artistes, preachers, and mystics for centuries. In many churches and cathedrals around the world, there are surpassing beautiful depictions of the Transfiguration in stain glasses. In books and writings, there is a preoccupation with the meaning of this event. So, what is it about the Transfiguration that fascinates the Christian mind? We are fascinated by it because it is the most explicit mention of mystical experience in the New Testament. We are a people of mystics. If you scratch at the surface of people’s lives, you will see lots of stories of the mystical. But what is the mystical? It is the experience of spiritual things within the ordinary. It is that experience that finally convinces us that spiritual realm or reality is far greater and far more beautiful than ordinary experience. 

Around the mid-point of his public ministry, three disciples had a mystical experience of Jesus. All three of the synoptic gospels— (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; and Luke  9:28-36) reported this story. Mark says that “Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.” The most causal reader of the Bible will be very familiar with the symbolism of mountain. Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai; he saw the Burning Bush on the same Mount Sinai. Abraham took his son Isaac to Mount Moriah to sacrifice him to God; the Temple of Jerusalem is built on Mount Zion. A lot of encounters with God happened on mountaintops. Mystics often used heights or mountains in a metaphorical sense to speak about the transcendence— heightened consciousness, heightened awareness, the vision from the hilltop (which is St. Thomas Aquinas definition of wisdom). When you get to the mountain, you see things from a broader perspective. It is like seeing all of reality from the standpoint of God. You see how all things are connected in and through God. Think of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the night before he was assassinated in Memphis. In his famous speech, he said he has been to the mountaintop and has seen something that no one else saw. On the mountain “he was transfigured before them.” Transfigured comes from the Greek word metamorphoo which means to change into another form. Jesus’ body changes from a purely human form to one that more accurately displays his divinity and glory. He went beyond the form he had. Without ceasing to be what he was, he became something more. Through his humanity, his disciples saw his divinity. They saw something more, something deeper and stranger. The event is a theophany. 

After he was transfigured, what else happened? “His clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.” His clothes became whiter than snow. Now, light or brightness is often used by mystics as a symbol of mystical experience because it provides the ground for true vision. In a dim light, it is much difficult to see something clearly. But a bright light provides a clear illumination to see something clearly. If you are reading a newspaper in a dimmed lighted room, you will stretch your eyes to see the prints. But if someone walks into the room and turns on the brighter light, you will see things more clearly. That’s what happens in a mystical experience. It is the moment of clarification, of getting it, of seeing more clearly what is ab initio shadowy. Mystical experience provides the way forward. We also associate light with beauty. To experience the world beyond this one is to experience a sublime beauty. When describing the Woman she saw in Lourdes, the great visionary St. Bernadette, above all talks about her beauty. St. Catherine of Sienna describes her vision in the beauty of the world that opens up. Light reveals the stunning beauty of the supernatural. 

Now, in the presence of the Transfigured Christ Peter exclaimed, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” For centuries, preachers (that includes me) had scolded and criticized Peter for his comment, for wanting to cling on the experience that is fleeting, vanishing and impermanence. It is true that mystical experience comes and goes and we cannot hang on to it. However, Peter’s instincts is a very good one. He wants to build three tents or tabernacle. For biblical Jews, that is not just a description of a physical objects or little habitations. Tents or tabernacle brings to mind the tabernacle or tent in the desert which was a prototype of the temple. It is where the Ark of the Covenant is kept. It is where the pilgrim people worshipped. So what is St. Peter saying when he said let’s build three tent here— one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah? He is requesting that the mountaintop where he and two other disciples of Jesus had a mystical experience of Jesus may be a focus of worship. And this is true. Oftentimes the mystical becomes a prompt for, and a place of worship. Remember Fatima, Lourdes, Guadalupe and so many other places where the mystical has become a locus of worship. In such places, we have built churches and tabernacles not just to commemorate the events that occurred, but to appreciate the mystical as a place of worship. 

Finally, the Gospel speaks of the voice from the cloud which says, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” What is the significance of the voice? The voice shows that mystical experience is not an abstraction., rather a contact with a person—God who speaks to the heart. The voice coming from the cloud is a sign of authentic mysticism. The Father is witnessing and testifying for the Son, and also declaring to the human race, if I may use the words Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “the fierce urgency of now,” which is, “Listen to him.” The call to listen to what Jesus is saying, has to say and would say is God’s own “fierce of urgency of now” to the human race. The Father is basically saying, if you want to live, want to be happy, want to be at peace, listen to my Son. Do it now, not tomorrow. Get to it now. If you want to be transformed into the likeness of God, listen to my Son. “For on him the Father, God has set his seal” (Jn. 6:27b). He is God’s final and definitive Warrior. He has come to fight, and he will win the final victory for the whole human race. May the Transfiguration of the Lord remind you of your own spiritual experience. May it drive you, motivate you, and inspire you to aspire, so that you don’t perspire or expire.