Metamorphosis

In tomorrow's Gospel reading we read of The Transfiguration,

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

We call this story the Transfiguration, though in Mark's New Testament Greek, the word for transfiguration is "metamorphosis" as when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Kathy Coffey,who teaches English at the University of Colorado, Denver, and Regis College, has written this poem of the experience of the transfiguration:

Grinding up the steep incline,
our calves throbbing,
we talked of problems
and slapped at flies.
Then you touched my shoulder,
said, "turn around."

Behind us floated
surprise mountains
blue on lavender,
water-colored ranges:
a glimpse from God's eyes.

Descending, how could we chat
mundanely of the weather, like deejays?
We wondered if, returning,
James and John had squabbled:
whose turn to fetch the water,
after the waterfall of grace?

After he imagined the shining tents,
did Peter's walls seem narrow,
smell of rancid fish?
Did feet that poised on Tabor
cross the cluttered porch?
After the bleached light,
could eyes adjust to ebbing
grey and shifting shade?

Cradling the secret in their sleep
did they awaken cautiously,
wondering if the mountaintop
would gild again-bringing
that voice, that face?

The season of Epiphany marks a time of that Aha! awareness of God's presence and how those moments can change our lives. None of us spends our lives in constant Epiphany. The Rev. Geoffrey Hoare, Rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Atlanta wrote of this for Day 1 saying:

In any congregation of Christians there are some people who can say they have been blessed with an Epiphany, a powerful manifestation or experience of God. There are many more people who fervently wish that such a gift would be granted them and who imagine that if only they could have a conversion or they could have a 'mountain top' experience, then their faith would not be so difficult. They imagine that belief would be easier to come by if they could be as clear as they imagine those around them to be. And then there are yet others who have moved beyond any hope or expectation of such epiphanies in their lives rather in the spirit of what Jesus once said to Thomas: 'Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe' (John 20:29).

The full text of that essay is online here: Epiphanies.


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