Jesus’ transfiguration can seem like a mysterious miracle that defies explanation or relevance to our own lives. But today’s reflection reminds us that Jesus’ change is grounded in the same belovedness which is the Divine’s gift to all creation, and to each of us.

February 25, 2024: Second Sunday in Lent, Year B

Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18

Psalm 116:10, 15-19

Romans 8:31b-34

Mark 9:2-10

Finding Hope in Order to Cope

A reflection by David Jackson

In exploring the readings for this Sunday, I was struck by the recurrence of the word “beloved” in the reading from Genesis and in Mark’s version of Jesus’ transfiguration.

Genesis: 

22:2, "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love,..”

22:12, "Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God,

since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."

22:16, “because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son,..”

Gospel:

1:11, “And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

9:7, “from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."

It is interesting to me that Mark presents much of Jesus teaching and miracle working BEFORE giving us the Transfiguration and urging us to LISTEN TO HIM. Mark concludes the transfiguration experience with these words: 

[Jesus] charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,

except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept

the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.

Once before the Transfiguration (8:31-33) and twice after it (9:30-32, 10:32-34), Jesus foretells his death and resurrection. In chapters 11-16, Jesus is no longer foretelling, but fulfilling this pattern of death and new life.

What are we to take from Mark’s account of the Transfiguration? 

1. 1. We are all Children of, and beloved by, that same divine power who created us. Jesus’ recognition and trust in that belovedness seems to propel his good works and support the courage required to face death.
   2. Most of us have been up a high, but then had to come down. We have moments that shape our perspectives and give us meaning, not unlike Mother Theresa or Paul, but these are fleeting. The challenge is to trust those moments and live out the lives to which they call us.
   3. The journey from Transfiguration to Crucifixion is one that we too make, although it takes various forms. Gay, straight, trans, non-binary, or cisgendered, we all must walk the path of dying and rising. That reality is something we all share. It can be a unifier amongst our differences.
   4. In the Catholic Calendar, the feast of the Transfiguration is celebrated on the second Sunday of Lent, but also on August 6. Another transfiguration occurred on August 6,1945: an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped a similar bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Jesus offers us a path beyond perpetuating violence—but that requires transformation. A key to transformation is accepting and trusting our belovedness.
   5. We are living in a time when Russia has withdrawn from the nuclear treaty and is attempting to use nuclear weapons to destroy satellites.  President Putin’s aggression is responsible for Russian deaths and Ukraine deaths and injuries in figures rivalling the nuclear explosions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Similar, gruesome violence has been and is being inflicted in Gaza and Israel. The violence and threats seem pervasive and overwhelming. When so much in our world needs to be transfigured, how are we to cope? Today’s readings remind us to ground ourselves and our actions in our belovedness. Jesus’ sense of that belovedness seemed to give him courage and hope through all he had to endure.

I find hoping and coping inspiration in the daily postings of Matthew Fox and Richard Rohr. I also find hoping and coping in our weekly Intentional Community service on line. They all serve to ground me in my own, others’, and all of creations belovedness.

Anything that allows me to know more surely my belovedness … or yours. This gives me hope. Touching the transcendent in beautiful spiritual writings, liturgies that speak to the truth of our relationships and our world, authentic conversations and acts of caring, these all help me experience the belovedness which envelopes us. This gives me hope, which in turn helps me cope with all the dehumanizing violence that bombards our sense.

In our belovedness, I HOPE WE CAN ALL FIND HOPE WHICH ENABLES US TO COPE!