Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor. Memory of Hiroshima, the first atomic bomb. Memory of pope Paul VI, who died in 1978.
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Homily
The mountain of the transfiguration, which the tradition will later identify with Mount Tabor, can be seen as the image of every spiritual journey. We can imagine Jesus calling us and taking us with him up the mountain, as he did with the three disciples who where his closest friends. He wanted them to share in his experience of intimate communion with the Father, an experience so profound that it transfigured his face, his body, and even his clothes - everything, inside and out. Some people say that the historical basis for this passage is based on an experience that most directly involved Jesus, a celestial vision that transfigured him. It is a likely and intriguing hypothesis that helps us understand Jesus’ own spiritual journey. We sometimes forget that he too had a spiritual journey, as the Gospel itself indicates, "Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour." Jesus doubtlessly felt joy at the fruits of his pastoral ministry, just as he also felt anguish and anxiety about the will of the Father (Gethsemane and the cross are the two most dramatic moments). Things were not so planned and foreseen for Jesus that he did not have to travel through the toil and the joy of a path.
Jesus too climbed the mountain, as had Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, and as every believer must. Jesus felt the need to climb the mountain as he needed to encounter the Father. It is true that communion with the Father was his whole life, the bread of his days, the substance of his mission, and the heart of everything he was and did, but Jesus also needed moments in which this intimate relationship could emerge in all of its fullness. Mount Tabor was the setting for one of these extraordinary moments of communion, and the Gospel extends it to cover the entire history of the people of Israel, as the presence of Moses and Elijah "who were talking with him" indicates. Jesus did not live this experience alone, however; he wanted to involve his three most intimate friends. It was one of the most meaningful moments of Jesus’ personal life, and it is made equally meaningful for the three disciples and all those who let themselves take part in this ascent. The tradition of the Church has offered many interpretations of this Gospel passage. Among the most durable of these is the one that sees monastic life as a reflection of the Transfiguration because of the radical choice it demands. But I believe we can also see the mountain of the Transfiguration in the Sunday Liturgy, where we are all called to participate so that, united with Jesus, we can live the highest moment of communion with God. It is during the Holy Liturgy that we can repeat Peter’s words: "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings..."
On this holy mountain of the Sunday Liturgy, where we find ourselves in the company of the patriarchs and the holy men and women of the First Testament, we hear the same voice as then: "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" Immediately the disciples found themselves with "only Jesus." They looked around in amazement and perhaps felt a little lost at having returned to "normality." They saw no one else, only Jesus. Here begins the weekdays that follow Sunday, that is, the descent from the mountain. The disciples are not the same as they were before. As they return to their daily lives they are no longer full of themselves, their ideas, their plans, and their dreams. They have the vision of the transfigured Jesus before their eyes, and that is enough. Yes, Jesus is the only thing that is given to the Christian Community and to each individual believer: He alone is the treasure, the wealth, and the motivation of our lives and the life of the Church. Peter wanted to construct a dwelling place with his hands, but God had already built that dwelling place when "the Word became flesh and lived among us" (Jn 1:14). With the apostle Paul we are happy to repeat that nothing - neither hardship or distress or death itself - will separate us from the love of Christ. In Christ alone is our salvation, as is sung in the Orthodox Liturgy, "We will walk forever, O Lord, in the light of the glory of your face."
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
