Homily: August 6 - Transfiguration - Mountaintop Experiences

Have you ever heard the phrase “mountain top experience”?

A “Mountain top experience” is what we call any experience, religious or otherwise, that is exhilarating, illuminating, inspiring, perhaps life-changing, it might fill you with an overwhelming feeling of unity with God and others.  Good, deep prayer, Sunday worship, or adoration of the Blessed Sacrament can bring such a “mountaintop experience”.

The Transfiguration was definitely a “mountain top experience” for the disciples, particularly for Peter.  They beheld the Lord Jesus in his glory, they heard the voice of the Father, Peter particularly, wanted the “mountaintop experience” to last forever, he cried out, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

The “mountain top” experiences are good.  But the Transfiguration teaches us that the Christian life consists of more than “mountain top experiences”. 

Peter wanted that moment to last, but St. Luke tells us that “he did not know what he was saying”.  Jesus had led them up the mountain to prepare them for what had to happen in Jerusalem, that he was to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die.  Peter wanted to skip the suffering part and skip straight to the glorious mountain top experience of heaven that lasts forever. 

He’s a lot like us, isn’t he?  Wanting to bypass the cross and skip to the glory, surprised that Jesus actually asks us to leave the mountain, so that we can get to the real work.  The mountain top experiences are good, but they are meant to strengthen our conviction, so that we can get to the real work.

The Christian gets into a lot of trouble, when they go from church to church, looking for only mountain top experiences.  They easily lose faith when God asks them to carry a cross. 

“This is my Son, listen to Him” means we need to follow the voice of Jesus back down the mountain, and onward to Jerusalem, to suffer with Him in order that we too might glorify the Father in our lives.

Mountaintop experiences do matter.  They can shake us out of our routine and fill us with new enthusiasm.  But Jesus calls us down from the mountain, that we, like him, may suffer for the sake of the kingdom, that we may work for the spread of the Gospel, for the glory of God, and salvation of souls.