We Become What We Behold: The Ninth Sunday After Trinity (August 6, 2023)

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of hearts be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

It’s important that we never lose the weirdness of Christianity. As Christians, we believe that a Jewish carpenter from 2,000 years ago was actually God incarnate; that he lived a perfect life, that he died for our sins, and that he resurrected. This is what makes our religion so awesome: God came in the most inconspicuous ways. Maybe this is why St. Paul says that the Greeks of his day found Christianity to be a stumbling block: God doesn’t reveal himself in some cataclysmic event; he reveals himself in that humble Jewish carpenter.

Nevertheless, there are moments in the Gospels where it becomes clear that there is something more to Jesus of Nazareth, something unique, something divine. And it is one of these events that we celebrate today as we observe the Feast of the Transfiguration. You know the story, I’m sure: Jesus takes Peter, John, and James to the top of a mountain where he is lifted up into the air and flanked by Moses and Elijah. His clothes are dazzling white. Then the disciples here a voice from heaven: “This is my beloved Son: hear him.” Once the voice speaks, the disciples realize they are alone with Jesus and everything returns to normal.

In order to understand why Jesus is transfigured, we have to ask a very simple and easy question: what is the purpose of being human? The Scriptures and Church teach us that we were designed for an intimate relationship with God, our creator; that we were made to adore him forever; that we might even see him who, as the hymn says is immortal, invisible, God only wise; in light inaccessible hid from our eyes.” The problem is that God is holy and, as creatures, most of us are not what we should be. Any vision of God in our present state would blow us away. This is what God tells Moses in Exodus when he asks to see God: “no man shall see me and live.” Still, God puts Moses in the cleft of a rock, and covers his face so that Moses can only see the backside of God. This is what causes him to glow. Salvation is not an event so much as a process and that process is directed towards seeing God. “Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” The journey of the soul towards God progresses up a ladder of ascent so that we go further up and further in to the mystery of God until our relationship with him is so intimate, so complete, so beautiful that we can peer into that uncreated essence. This is the destiny of humankind; this is your destiny and Lord willing, this is my destiny.

So why is it Jesus glows? Jesus, as I mentioned was not just a carpenter from Nazareth who lived 2,000 years ago. According to the Nicene Creed, we affirm two important truths about Jesus: he is God from God, the eternal person of the Word; and, he is man from the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary. And so it’s very important for us, as Christians to acknowledge that, on the one hand, Jesus is one person; when he acts, the whole of his person acts. On the other hand, we also have to say that the one person of Jesus fully possesses two natures: one fully human and one fully divine. As such, we have the perfect unity between God and humanity in Christ. Christ’s humanity was divinized, it was united to God in the most intimate way. As a result, we can say the human soul of Christ was always seeing that beatific vision and, at this event on the top of the mountain, he gives a few of his disciples a sneak peak. And he gives us that sneak peak too by extension.

And so the story of Moses that we read today is a helpful reminder that the transfiguration isn’t only some special thing only Jesus experiences. No, Moses experiences it too because he has such a close relationship with God. Moses gets to see God’s glory and, when he comes down, his face is glowing. Moses reflects God’s glory into the world; he is like the mirror, reflecting the light of the sun into the world. And the people of Israel are terrified of what’s happening, so Moses puts on a veil.

There are three important takeaways from today’s feast. The first is that we become what we behold. The things we give our attention to, the things we see, those form and shape us. If we behold movies, TV shows, and music that tell us we find ultimate fulfillment in relationships, power, sex, or money, how does that impact us? If we are beholden to a 24-hour news cycle that teaches us to hate our neighbors, whoever they are, how does that impact us? But how does it impact us if we focus on the things St. Paul lists in Philippians 4:8 “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report?” Then we might become what we behold and become good too.

A second thing we need to learn today can be found in the way that Israel responds to Moses’ transfigured state when he comes down from the mountains. “When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.” The Israelites were scared of Moses. Holiness in others can be scary because it reminds us of all those things about ourselves that need to change (because remember, we become what we behold). If we behold a holy life, we may end up becoming like that person and I think some of us can be too scared to follow that trajectory to its end point because it demands much from us. Yet this is exactly what the Church has us do: this is why we read so much Scripture at Morning and Evening Prayer each day; it’s why we make Holy Communion so foundational to who we are; it’s why we have a Church Kalendar full of Feasts celebrating holy Saints in the Church. These are our examples and, when we actually truly behold them, they change us for the better. And so we have to resist the fear that might come from beholding these beautiful things.

Finally, we should remember that our goal is twofold. Our primary goal is to reach the beatific vision, to become transfigured. But this isn’t something we do on our own, there are no individual Christians. We are saved in and through relationships, our relationship with Christ and his Church, our relationship with our families, and so on. And so, part of our pursuit of the beatific vision is to take the divine light that we do have and to reflect it to those around us.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.