St Joseph ’s Church

4 March 2007

It is very appropriate that this concluding Mass of the Festival should focus on the theme of transfiguration. On the mountain, Peter, John and James saw the truth that they had lived with without understanding it during the years they had walked with Jesus. Their eyes were opened to recognise that Jesus was the fulfilment of the law and the prophets – represented by Moses and Elijah – and that he was the beloved Son of the Father. He was already filled with the glory that he had with his Father before the world was made. And in the context of that glory, Moses and Elijah were speaking of his passing which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem.

It is interesting that St Luke mentions that, although the three apostles were heavy with sleep, they kept awake. The same three disciples were with Jesus some time later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Luke tells us that “he found them sleeping for sheer grief” ( Lk 22:45 ).

They felt grief because of their fear of the imminent arrest and condemnation and death of Jesus. They feared what he had just spoken of at the Last Supper – the giving up of his Body and the shedding of his Blood. And their grief was so strong that they could not bear to face the pain of it.

Yet when they saw him on the mountain they remained awake when they witnessed him speaking with Moses and Elijah about the death that he was to suffer in Jerusalem. What made the difference? In the garden of Gethsemane they could not face the prospect of his death. On the mountain, as that same death was being spoken of, they felt hope and joy and peace; it was wonderful for them to be there. On the mountain, they saw not just the horror of his death but its meaning, the meaning Jesus expressed when he said, ‘Let your will be done, not mine” ( Lk 22:42 ). On the mountain they knew that what was to happen in Jerusalem was the culmination of God’s plan: Christ having been raised from the dead will never die again ( Rom 6:9 ), and he will “transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body”. But they had lost sight of the wonder and the joy when faced with the harsh reality of Holy Week.

That is what the liturgy does. It brings us together to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ made present to us in this Eucharist, and to rejoice in its meaning. His resurrection brings his human Body finally and completely into the glory that was shown on the mountain: “the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning”. Now he lives in that glory forever, where death no longer has any power over him ( Rom 6:9 ). In our day to day lives we do not see that glory as the apostles did on the mountain. Like the disciples in the garden, we have often forgotten it, swamped by our worries, our fears, our competing priorities, our vulnerability. But the liturgy reminds us that it is the most profound truth about our lives and our world. In the liturgy “we take part in a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of (the new) Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims” [VATICAN II, Sacrosanctum Conclium, 8]. . We do not see the glory that shone on the mountain, but we are surrounded by it in the liturgy and indeed in the whole of our lives. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we walk with the Risen Jesus without recognising him.

In his first encyclical Pope John Paul said that looking at ourselves in the light of the Incarnation and Redemption, “bears fruit not only of adoration of God but also of deep wonder at [ourselves]… In reality, the name for that deep amazement at human worth and dignity is the Gospel, that is to say: the Good News. It is also called Christianity” [JOHN PAUL II, Redemptor Hominis 10”. As he looked at the glory of Christ on the mountain, the glory that we will share, Peter was so carried away that he did not know what he was saying.

When we pray in the liturgy or outside the liturgy our words always fall vastly short. We try to express our worship of God and our thanksgiving for the gift we are offered in Christ. But we do not know how to pray as we ought; the Holy Spirit makes our petitions for us “with sighs too deep for words” ( Rom 8:26 ).

Words are never enough. That is why Christians have always expressed the wonder of their faith in art and poetry, in literature and in mystical writing, and in music. The winner of a recent competition for mystical poetry expressed it like this: “In the end, the whole Bible is pure poetry, mystical song and astonishment”. Faith, he said is about remembering, and, at the same time, it is about “glimpsing the future dumbfounded” [ Father Valentin Arteaga, superior general of the Order of Clerics Regular (Theatines) on winning the mystical poetry prize awarded by the Fernando Rielo Foundation. ZENIT News Agency, Daily Dispatch, ZE070216].

The wonder and beauty of what we celebrate in the liturgy always exceeds anything our words can express. We need all our languages, words, images, posture, and in a particular way, music, to try to express as best we can the peace and wonder of God which pass all understanding ( Phil 4:7).

The Psalms often tell us to sing a new song to the Lord Psalms [40:3, 96:1, 98:1, 144:9,149:1]. When we sing in church we are trying to do that. The song is always new because in every celebration, in every circumstance the glory of God is present and at work in our lives. In each moment when we glimpse that glory we realise that it is good for us to be here. Unfortunately, like the disciples, we are often asleep, overwhelmed by our grief and by all the things that make us too busy, too frightened, too uncertain, too alone to understand who we are and what God is doing for us. But we are the people who gather to sing with all the angels and saints around the throne of God. We are the people who thank the infinite God who made an unbreakable covenant with Abraham and renewed that covenant in the Blood shed by his eternal Son, Jesus.

The choirs and the music that have been heard in Limerick over the last few days, and this evening, express of our joy and our hope and our astonishment at God’s gift. The most wonderful thing about that music is what it foreshadows: the new song that is sung around the throne of God and of the Lamb who died for us. It is a song of Easter joy:

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!" Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, "To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever!" ( Rev 5:11-13)

+Donal Murray
Bishop of Limerick