I was driving down Route 81 one day. The sky was bright blue, the sun was shining, and the leaves were the most luscious hues of gold, yellow, and crimson that Fall could provide. It was gorgeous! I had a CD of Christian music on as I drove and the song playing was “Let Your Glory Be Shown.” It hit me square in the face that I was staring at “the Glory of God!”……a Mount Tabor experience!
One morning as I left work after a terribly hectic shift, I was dragging myself to the parking garage. Energy depleted, I was walking slowly with my head hanging down. I was aware of an elderly couple walking behind me. I held the door for them, probably said “Hello” and we all started to go our separate ways. Suddenly the wife turned around and asked if I was “Nurse Linda from the ER.” When I said “yes,” she responded: “Well, here’s your patient. We’ve come for his six week check-up.” “My patient” whom I remembered very clearly with just a hint of the story, was a man so sick I was afraid to leave his room. He was about as close to death as anyone could be. Now, except for being a little pale, he looked great! My head popped up, a smile broadened my face, and I trotted to my car 500 pounds lighter! God had again shown His Glory! A Mt. Tabor experience! In today’s Gospel Jesus was approaching His passion and death. It would be a time when the apostles would need all the encouragement they could get. So Jesus showed the chosen three, the leaders, all His radiant glory. And again, they heard another attestation that He was the Son of God. It was to be another step in their journey of faith–believing that He truly was the Son of God.
We know that the apostles didn’t fully realize what was about to happen to their Leader. They were still expecting that, yes, Jesus would be a saviour. He would save them Roman domination. He would be their king! But they did not have all the pieces to the puzzle. When reality struck, the apostles fled. They did not draw encouragement from the Transfiguration at that time. We do not live in a patient world. All around us is a life of hustle and bustle. We live in a world of instant gratification. So often we want the quickest way of getting everything done. Sometimes we truly make things difficult for ourselves because of our impatience. We create our own frustrations which can lead to discouragement. Lent should be a time to step back, reconsider our wants and desires–and not just those of a material sense. We have the “pieces to the puzzle.” We know that Jesus is in our lives to guide and assist us if we let Him. Lent is a time to slow down, to look for those “Mt. Tabors”—to look for those times and opportunities in our own life when Jesus shows us His glory as He attempts to encourage and enlighten us in our own Faith journey. He is there–if only we open ourselves to Him and stop long enough to let Him in!
Linda Caminiti
