Managing our Wow-Moments
Daniel 7:9–10, 13–14; 2 Peter 1:16–19; Mark 9:2–10
“Wow-moments” come in unexpected surprises organized either by friends or Providence. Unexpected victories in competitive sports, acing a difficult exam, winning a jackpot, or achieving a dreamed job or winning a spouse. These are wow-moments, and they bring about a mixture of joy and confusion that leave some speechless, others in tears, or trying new stunts.
There is another kind of wow-moment – when things simply refuse to add up, when the odds are orchestrated against us. In place of progress, we record retrogression; instead of successes, failures take their places. Negative wow-moments do fill us with distrust of God and human beings
Today’s solemnity of the Transfiguration provides an instance of a wow-moment for Peter, John, and James. This is a Providential wow-moment full of existential and theological meanings for all Christians.
The Jesus living with Peter, John, and James, and whom they thought they knew well, takes them on a journey of discovery – a wonderland of some sorts. The realization that the physical and visible Jesus has more to him than the physical Jesus whose company they keep conjures a wow-moment. In fact, the physical Jesus hides the glorious and divine Jesus from them all the while, up until the Transfiguration, their wow-moment.
Characteristically, every wow-moment has an element of hard work or sacrifice associated with it. This is comparable to the strategies that go into wooing a spouse who eventually says yes on proposal day; the burning of the midnight oil preparing for either exams or job interviews that turn out very positively; the long wait and many months of pregnancy that end in a safe delivery of a bouncing child/children – twins and triplets. These instances of wow-moments spice up our earthly existence.
Transfiguration bears comparison to an experience of a wow-moment. For instance, the Child that Mary gave birth to, considered the son of Joseph and a carpenter by trade, suddenly reveals his divinity in a spectacular way at the Transfiguration. Peter, John, and James suddenly fathom that Jesus has other friends besides themselves with whom he visits and holds conversations – Moses and Elijah. Peter discovers that there is more joy in the presence of God that he offers to build houses/tents on the mountain for Jesus and his friends and was not dreaming of descending from the mountain. Peter’s experience is such a blast that he doesn’t think of any accommodation for himself and the other Apostles – he becomes 100% unselfish and altruistic! How lovely Heaven must be if meeting God on earth generates so much happiness!
Peter and the Apostles soon learn that Heaven, like every authentic wow-moment, doesn’t come cheaply. It comes through giving up one’s life for others. Jesus reminds them – “the Son of man must suffer, be rejected and killed . . .” In order to experience a personal Transfiguration, there is only one way – death to sin and earthly attachment. Elijah and Moses paid their fare and could converse with God like friends converse and visit with one another.
If the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor is for a brief moment, our first reading teaches us that a more permanent Transfiguration will take place in Heaven with the enthronement of Jesus because he gives up his life and dies on the cross for the salvation of the world.
The reward for dying for others is Transfiguration. God transfigures and crowns those who give up their lives for others. He does just that for his Son in the first reading. Jesus’ earthly life culminates in a heavenly enthronement because his redeems the world.
At the foot of Mount Tabor, the “valley of tears” continues; but at the peak of the mountain, for those who choose to climb it, there is God waiting for them, there is a new kingdom and dominion awaiting climbers: “the one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship; all peoples, nations, and languages serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed”.
We may still be waiting for our own wow-moment, our dreamed spouse, job, break through, etc. The power of faith that the moment will come, and the trust that because it happened to others it can happen to us as well, is the indispensable hope that must animate a Christian’s journey on earth.
Wow-moments require faith to interpret them properly. Our second reading suggests a credibility test for every Christian: “we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable. You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts”. Only those who believe the experience Sacred Scriptures recount will enjoy its promises. We need to believe that Jesus’ Transfiguration is no trickery. Although the physical and the visible seem to hide the divine and the invisible in Jesus, faith reveals and makes present whatever is illogical in our wow-moments.
Like Jesus’ experience, a Christian’s wow-moment comes in two stages. The first stage is the wow-moment of the cross, crucifixion, and an ignominious death. This first wow-moment makes us ask, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” The Christian’s cross is never rosy to carry: putting up with friends’ and families’ stabs in the back; the plots for our failure, and the apparent deaf-ears of God to the prayers we think he should necessarily hear and grant!
The second wow-moment is that of resurrection and glorification. It comes with strong positive emotions; it rings the bells of success. We see the pomp and pageantry of Jsus’ enthronement in the first reading. This second wow-moment lasts forever, and we can converse with God the way Moses and Elijah do in today’s gospel.
Transfiguration Sunday invites us to learn from Jesus Christ how to manage our wow-moments – to embrace them, whether positive or negative. Jesus goes to his death fully conscious of his divinity – “thy will not mine be done,” he says.
Some of us are currently going through a negative wow-moment. We feel rejected and unloved; some of us think we’re loosers, failures, and never-do-well. We want to quit and give up on God and humanity. On the contrary, we need to look for the silver lining in it all.
Transfiguration Sunday proposes we set our gazes on the positive wow-moment that will definitely come in heaven, should we opt to give up our lives for others. Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting only positive wow-moments all through our earthly existence. However, Sacred Scriptures convince us that that is an exception rather than the rule. Let us focus on the rule and accept the exception, in case it is our lot!
Assignment for the Week:
No complaints of any kind this week against unanswered prayers.
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