Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18 / Rom 8:31-34 / Mk 9:2-10
I have a riddle for you. A woman has two sons, both born at the same hour, on same day, in same year. But they’re not twins. Explain how this can be.
The answer is: They’re part of a set of triplets!
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Plain as day, but most of us didn’t see it. That’s because we stop thinking too soon. So often we stop before we see everything that’s there — before we see all the possibilities.
We have a perfect example of this in Sunday’s Gospel. The apostles have been with Jesus for a long time, but they haven’t really seen him. So he takes them to the top of that mountain and shows them who he is on the inside, and they’re dazzled — rightly so. But they stop with that: “This is great!” says Peter. “Let’s build a shrine for Jesus and we can just stay right here.”
The apostles don’t see the next step, which is their own transformation: Jesus is showing them himself so they’ll know where they’re headed and what they are supposed to become — and that is people so good and so big on the inside that their spirits glow.
They don’t see that next step yet, so Jesus takes them by the hand and leads them back down the mountain. Down there where the real work of life is done very slowly, he’ll help them to understand that growing into full-fledged brothers and sisters of Jesus is the work of a lifetime and there are no shortcuts. It takes faithful commitment that doesn’t stop or turn away when, as so often happens, weariness and sadness begin to take their toll.
It’s an awesome task, this business of staying faithful and not stopping till we’re really done. At every step along the way, we face the temptation to give up and retreat to our own little hilltop. So we need to hear again and again what Paul said to us in Sunday’s epistle: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
The fact is, God IS for us. So hold to course and don’t stop till you’re really done. He will walk with you all the way home!