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Homily
The Gospel of the Transfiguration describes what occurs during every Sunday’s Eucharistic Liturgy. After six weekdays, Jesus gathers us and takes us aside, to a “high” place. We need to go up a bit, but not in order to flee or evade, so that everything remains the same afterwards as before. In the Liturgy we look upon a different way to live, to feel, to behave. And while we behold heavenly things, we are drawn and transformed within. Here we become that which we behold. We have not gone up the mountain alone or through our own initiative. It is the Lord who has called and led us. The evangelist writes that Jesus “took with him” the three disciples. “To take with him” - this is Jesus’ constant desire. In John’s Gospel this desire becomes a prayer: “Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory” (Jn 17:24). It is exactly what takes place in Tabor; that which takes place atop the mountain of the Holy Liturgy. To the disciples of then and now, an event out of the ordinary is presented, far removed from the usual scenarios. “And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white,” notes the evangelist. Peter, drawn into this light, speaks up and suggests that three tents be made.
His desire to remain there with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah is clear. But he is interrupted by a voice --this is the centre of the event-- which comes out of a cloud, which is luminous, too, and which envelops everyone: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” From the cloud which envelops the Holy Book of the Scriptures comes the voice of the Lord for us, as it did for Peter, James and John. “Hear the Gospel!” we could translate. It is the most precious Word, the clearest, the most luminous, that the Lord has given us. Peter realizes that the Jesus who is there in front of him is much more than the man they have understood him to be up to that moment- that Jesus, with whom they have walked for some time and even admired for his excellence, that Jesus is something way beyond what they have thought. Thus, those three suddenly find themselves immersed, as it were, in an adventure much more serious and profound than what they had imagined.
It is the same for us and the Gospel. If we accept it we shall be drawn into a new adventure, greater and more beautiful than what we could have imagined. Peter speaks up and exclaims, “It is good for us to be here.” He wants to stay there. He perhaps thinks that love is an extraordinary instant to be lived, solely a particular adventure to prolong, an enthralling experience we should try to preserve. But he is overcome by a voice: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” Yes, with the Lord love is not a magical moment, but a face, a man who walks with us. It is the most human voice, that which we hear when the Gospel is proclaimed. It is his body which lets itself be broken in order to nourish the heart. It is the human face, weak, concrete, that we behold in the poor. And it is truly beautiful for us to enjoy this light. It is beautiful for brothers and sisters to be together. It is beautiful that the elderly and the young, the healthy and the ill, enjoy the same love. It is beautiful because no one can take possession of it.
The Holy Liturgy is beautiful because it reflects the luminous strength of God’s love. Jesus says to his three disciples who have fallen to the ground, as if crushed by their nothingness: “Get up and do not be afraid.” Life in fact can become beautiful, full of meaning, luminous like the life of the one who loves. Let us fear not: the face of that friend who is Jesus, who transforms the hearts and the world, remains with us! Let us look to him. Let us recognize him. Let us listen to him. To change one’s life means to listen to him and not to our own reasoning and habits. He has overcome death and has made life shine. He is the light of love that does not end and which brightens our eyes. And he is a light that is continuously transmitted. Jesus “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light,” writes the Apostle Paul. Everything shines and is colourful with love. It is awesome to contemplate Jesus’ face: it is God’s beauty. It is the beauty of a human being who is loved and who loves. And life, when it experiences love, rises up again.
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
