And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.
Last week, as we began to undertake our Lenten discipline the Church presented us with the mystery of the temptation of Jesus in the desert. Although, as God, he is without sin and unable to sin, he still humbled himself to undergo baptism, purification by fasting, and battled with the temptations of Satan in the desert.
This Sunday, we have the mystery of the Transfiguration. On one level, the Church places the Gospel of the Transfiguration here in the opening weeks of Lent to give us encouragement and consolation. Our process of purification and participation in the Cross is to be seen in the light of the victory of Christ in the Resurrection. At a deeper level, because the Transfiguration belongs to the pedagogy of Christ himself, who uses the transfiguration to instruct his disciples about the nature of God and therefore their own and their discipleship.
In all three synoptic Gospels, the transfiguration is placed after Peter’s confession of faith, and Jesus’ first passion prediction.
Jesus is moving toward his Passion. He knows this but the disciples do not. He needs to bring them into a deeper understanding of himself and his mission if they are to follow him as he needs them to.
In his confession of faith, Peter has shown he is on the right path, he has opened himself enough to the light of Christ that he is able to witness before the Lord and the other disciples, with great confidence and conviction, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He has attained a certain level of faith.
But when Jesus follows Peter’s confession with his first passion prediction, Peter responds with a rebuke: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”
Jesus makes it quite clear that Peter has badly misunderstood him and the nature of his mission. He responds to Peter with a rebuke of his own, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me you are thinking not as God does but as human beings do.
It is not enough for the disciples to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ they must also align themselves with his mission. The two must line up. There is no other way. Peter’s standpoint is an obstacle, a stumbling block, he is blocking Jesus view of his Father, whose will, desire and plan is always before the eyes of Jesus; guiding him in every step.
Thinking of Peter here, I was reminded of the third century bishop, Clement of Alexanderia’s distinction between the Pistic and the Gnostic Christian. The “pistic” is one who lives by “pistis”, which, in Greek, means ‘faith’. For Clement, the ‘pistic’ signifies the ordinary faithful believer, one who trusts in God, accepts the tenets of revelation and the apostolic teaching as given, and is obedient to Christ. This person practices virtue, worships regularly, and lives a moral life in a straightforward way. Clement does not intend this term to be pejorative. He insists that the way of the pistic is good, holy, and salvific, but it is not yet a mature faith. In Peter’s case, although his life has been turned upside down by his encounter with Christ, has left all things to follow him, and has come so far as to make this bold confession of faith, his understanding remains very limited. Jesus has more in mind for Peter. In comparison with where Jesus needs Peter to be if he is to fulfill his role as Jesus has laid it out for him, his faith remains immature. Jesus needs him to become what Clement calls the ‘true gnostic’ (from gnosis, meaning knowledge), as opposed to the heretical Gnostics he was battling against as bishop.
Clement describes the true Gnostic as “a mature Christian whose faith has blossomed into deep, contemplative understanding. One who has undergone intellectual, moral, and spiritual purification. Someone who reads Scripture with spiritual insight, who is capable of discerning its symbolic and mystical depths.
For Clement, The life of the true Gnostic is marked by perfect charity, (that is, love, for Clement, is the highest knowledge), and has achieved ‘apatheia’, that is freedom from disordered passions. Clement was perhaps the first to apply “apatheia” to the spiritual life. The true gnostic, in other words, is the pistic whose faith has reached its full flowering.
Jesus wants to see this kind of growth in Peter.
Jesus follows his passion prediction with a teaching about the conditions for discipleship: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
On the mountain Jesus’ primary intention is to show the disciples the truth of who he is: in his radiant splendor with all the theophanic signs that accompany him in the vision: the mountain, the shining face and garments, the present of Moses and Elijah, and the voice from the cloud - all point to his equality with God and his role as the one who is to come.
What’s more, the saying of the voice from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him”, refers to the prophecy of the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42:1, as does the almost exact saying of the voice that came from heaven at the Jesus’ baptism. In chapter 12, Matthew provides the whole quote: “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I shall place my spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not contend or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope” (Mt 12:18-21).
Peter will become the true Gnostic when he is able to see the splendor of the transfigured Lord manifest in the servant of the Lord. He will be able to set up his tent and abide in the rapt ecstatic movement of being caught up in God that he knew on the mount when his heart abides in the Lord who has set up his tent among us, who has come among us in free self-emptying love, who has willingly taken upon himself all our sins, sorrows, trials and difficulties, in a simple, lowly, hidden life, and when he follows the Lord by conforming his own disposition and behavior to his. Passages in the Scriptures that had seemed obscure will light up and unveil their meaning for him. And although his journey will not be without its humiliations and failings, in the end he will follow his Lord to the Cross.
Let us, too, put on the mind of Christ as we continue our Eucharistic celebration.
