Foretaste of heaven

No matter how influential you are, no matter how expensive your car is, no matter how many loving people surround you, no matter how grandiose your house is, if you have, even for a few seconds, a chance to visit heaven, you would not care about coming back here to what you have.

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The Gospel pericope gives a glimpse of such a mountaintop experience. Jesus undergoes a metamorphosis, a change of form. Moses and Elijah, who personify God’s revelation (the Law and the Prophets), speak of Jesus’ exodus, which is the “passing over” from slavery to freedom. Jesus will accomplish this by his passion. Thus, Jesus’ identity and mission are revealed to his most intimate disciples.

Peter and his companions are overwhelmed by their experience. Peter wants the “high moment” to last a lifetime and so proposes that tents or booths be put up on the mountain. He misses the point of the experience. It is to strengthen them when they descend to the plains and go up again to Jerusalem where, in his passion, Jesus will appear as one of those from whom people hide their faces. Behind the rejected face is the face of the chosen Son.