On the last day of my first retreat as a Jesuit novice, my spiritual director said, Time to come down from the mountain! I had no idea what he was talking about. So I said, Huh?
Smiling, he reminded me of today’s Gospel passage, the story of the Transfiguration, when Jesus is transfigured before three of his closest disciples. (The Greek word used is metemorphōthē: he undergoes a metamorphosis.) It’s a mysterious reading in which Jesus’s identity as the Son of God is again revealed to the disciples.
In response, the disciples want to stay. Let us build three tents, says Peter. Who wouldn’t? Who wouldn’t want to remain with Jesus there forever, worshiping him and basking in his (literal) glory?
Yet this is not what they are called to do. Following Jesus’s lead, they come down from the mountain. They return to the day-to-day work of being a disciple.
After a consoling time in prayer, a moving liturgy, a satisfying retreat, an inspiring book, an hour in spiritual conversation, or a walk in the woods in silence with God, we sometimes want to do nothing more than remain. But Jesus asks us to take the fruits of our time with God to others. To come down off the mountain. And to do the hard—and rewarding—work of being an apostle for social justice.
--Fr. James Martin
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