During this particular Lenten season, we are inviting ourselves to reflect on our hungers and thirsts, not so much for food and drink, but for the deeper things, spiritual things - for God! Today’s Gospel tells us the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus took Peter, John, and James up Mount Tabor and there they got a glimpse of the divinity of Jesus like they had never seen before. Conversing with Moses and Elijah (symbolizing his fulfillment of all the Jewish hopes, Moses representing the Law and Elijah all the Prophets), they heard the voice from the cloud declare “This is my beloved Son.” This is the same message that the voice from the heavens declared at the baptism of Jesus.
Peter declares how good it was to have this experience. He wants to stay there and suggests they build three tents to make this experience permanent. This mystical experience obviously touched them deeply; it satisfied - but only momentarily - their hunger and their thirst for the divine. They savored this glimpse of glory. But these same disciples would go on to fall asleep in the Garden of Olives and abandon Jesus at his crucifixion.
Hunger and thirst are like that. We eat and drink but get hungry and thirsty again. That’s why we keep coming to the table of the Lord. It is not, “one and done,” but each day we come to the Lord to be nourished for the journey, to have strength to walk the way of the cross. We thank God for this hunger and thirst which keeps us seeking the Lord.
Fr. Jeff