August 6, 2017

Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6)

The Mass—An Experience of Mount Tabor

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

Our Lord knew his apostles through and through. He understood their weaknesses and how prone they were to falter. This is why he brought Peter, James, and John to Mount Tabor. There he was transfigured before their eyes. He “lifted the veil” and allowed them a glimpse of his divinity—an experience of the radiance of heaven. He understood that their faith and hope would need to be strengthened when the tragedy of Good Friday would come. The Lord wanted the apostles to be able to recall the glory to be—the voice of the Eternal Father identifying him as his Beloved Son—to recall that he was the Messiah who was the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets. These truths, this foretaste of glory would be vital when the times would be difficult and when fear would overtake them.
 
This is what the Transfiguration teaches us as well. We too are weak, slow to understand. Fears and disappointments can easily overwhelm us. Doesn’t our faith, our hope need to be lifted up? We need to remember the words of St. Paul: “The sufferings of this world cannot even be compared to the glory that awaits us” (Rom 8:18); and “our momentary afflictions are producing for us a weight of eternal glory beyond compare.” (2 Cor 4:17).
 
While we cannot have the same experience of the apostles on Mount Tabor, we are not without the means to encounter the Lord. Every Mass is in a certain sense an experience of Mt. Tabor…because Mass is heaven come to earth! The Mass should never become something that is so routine or casual that we lose our sense of reverence and amazement of what takes place here. This great feast gives us pause to consider what the Mass is.
 
In a very real way, through the Mass we must be transfigured, our thoughts, our words, our silence, our deportment, our gestures and posture and yes, even our dress should reflect that we are in no ordinary place and between heaven and earth. This is explained so well for us in a wonderful little book, The Lamb’s Supper, by Professor Scott Hahn. Here are just a few passages:

“To go to Mass is to go to heaven. To go to Mass is to renew our covenant with God. To go to Mass is to receive the fullness of grace, the very life of the Trinity. No power in heaven or on earth can give us more than we receive in the Mass, for we receive God into ourselves. We must go to Mass with eyes and ears, mind and heart open to the truth that is before us, the truth that rises like incense.
 
From the moment you walk into church, you place yourself under oath. By dipping your fingers into holy water, you renew the covenant begun with your baptism. Many times during Mass you will say, “Amen” is it more than a response, it is a commitment.
 
We were made as creatures on earth, but we were made for heaven and nothing less. We were made in time, like Adam and Eve, but not to remain in an earthly paradise.
 
Now heaven has been unveiled, for us. Now, heaven touches earth and awaits you. Jesus says to you….Behold I am at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.”

Brothers and sisters, let us now continue the Mass, let us open the door of encounter with God, let us lift the veil, to partake of the extraordinary feast that awaits us. Let us go to heaven!