Where do you meet
God, and what does God look like?
In the Book of Genesis, Abram is on his journey to the land promised to him by God when God
assures Abram that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. To solidify his covenant with Abram, God
has Abram prepare a sacrifice that turns unsettling, to say the least: a
trance falls upon Abram, and a deep,
terrifying darkness envelops him.
God then appears in the form of a
smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, passing
between the animal carcasses on the altar.
God is thus a light in Abram's darkness, remaining mysterious (because
of the smoke) but becoming ever clearer as Abram centers himself in God, moving
out of himself so as to enter into relationship. God is Abram's light and his salvation,
as Psalm 27 puts it; in God's presence, Abram has no one to fear.
At the moment of
the Transfiguration, in Luke's Gospel, darkness also comes in the form of a cloud, frightening Peter, John and
James, obscuring their vision. But that
darkness, coming as it does after they witness the splendor of Jesus' glory and dazzling white garments, is the place from which God speaks to
them: This is my chosen Son; listen to him. The disciples will not completely understand
the Transfiguration at first, and they certainly are not yet ready to accept his
passion (and death on a cross), both of which Jesus has already predicted to
them, but they are on their way, on that journey, entering as best they can
into relationship with the Lord within their limited human understanding. The
Philippians will be similarly challenged, hesitating to accept the necessity of
the cross, tempted to imitate enemies of
the cross of Christ whose end is
their destruction. But Paul reminds
them that their citizenship is in heaven;
they can only enter fully into relationship with the Lord if they embrace
not only his resurrection but also his death.
They must encounter the Lord where he
is, not where they want to find him.
We all live, to
some extent, in a cloud; no one fully grasps the Lord in all his ineffable glory.
But the Transfiguration is a promise of the glory to come, the divine
light that will shine upon us all. Every
day is a new opportunity to meet God in a way we have not met God previously --
in each other, in the events of our lives, in every thought we have, in every
deed we accomplish. Though we may not
understand, we are called to trust, with the faith that we too will one day conform with Christ's glorified body, the ultimate fulfillment
of the promise of relationship made with Abram so long, long ago.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source:
www.wordclouds.com
