Gn 15:5-12, 17-18
Phil 3:17-4:1
Lk 9:28b-36

A Mountain Top View
This past week I have been thinking about the gospel of Luke from the Sunday reading of March 4th. I have always felt for poor Peter in this gospel. He moves right into action and decides it is time to offer the prophets appropriate accommodations for their stay with Jesus and them on the mountain. Just as he is moving into a mode of hospitality, a cloud overshadows them and then,

“from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.
They fell silent and did not at that time
tell anyone what they had seen.”

I can’t quite imagine being in his position. I heard and have read this passage with hindsight for years. But imagine being there as Peter, James and John! Imagine going for a mountain retreat and having big name saints showing up in your prayer space. I have to ask myself, how might I move forward after such an experience?

This time of Lent is an opportunity to experience transformation. Most of us won’t go away physically for forty days to ready ourselves for the celebration of the Tridium. So I ask myself, how open am I to really having my life changed during this time of fasting and prayer? Am I willing to be open to these changes happening in my everyday life? Honestly, some days it varies, as I can be very comfortable with my known patterns whether they build the kingdom within or not.

The other thing I wondered about was to what degree am I open to others being transformed during this time? I wonder what was it like for Jesus and the disciples to come down from the mountain? How open were their friends to the changes they must have experienced in them?

Thank goodness for Peter, as he gives all of us a break in our human struggle to accept the various ways that God calls us to transformation. He bumbles through so much of his journey. Yet in it all he shows us that we too can respond to the call of Christ whether it is on a mountain top taking in the awe of God, or asking for forgiveness after denying to the woman by the fire, that he was a follower of Jesus. Remember, it was Peter who was invited to be the rock upon which the message of Christ was to be lived.