“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
The biblical story teaches us to take good experiences to "valleys", where there is often a lack of hope and motivation. To our small and big crises.
God likes mountains. The most important events in the history of salvation took place on the mountains in the Old and New Testaments. On the volcanic mass of Ararat, the ark stopped as the waters of the Flood began to fall; the hill of Moriah witnessed the sacrifice of Abraham; at the summit of Sinai, Yahweh gave Israel his commandments; "on the sermon mountain", Jesus gave the people eight blessings; on the Mount of Olives, the Son of God prayed before the Passion, and on Calvary the sins of the whole world were redeemed. At each of these summits, something happened that mattered to the relationship between God and man. The Transfiguration of the Lord, one of the most important events in Jesus' life and the miracle performed in the presence of the three apostles, also happened on a mountain, a lonely hill in Galilee called Tabor.
What does Tabor teach us?
Tabor - in Hebrew Har Tawor (הר תבור) and in Arabic Jabal aṭ-Ṭābūr - means "high peak"; It rises almost six hundred meters above sea level and towers majestically over the plain. God loves such mountains - secluded and inaccessible, requiring getting out of comfort zone. "Jesus took Peter, 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 fuller on earth could bleach them" (cf. Mk 9:2-3) Saint Matthew notice that “his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light” (cf. Mt 17: 2).
In Jesus' day, people did not go to the mountains for pleasure. I think when the apostles climbed Tabor, they went above and beyond to understand why Jesus was taking them there. They must have been very surprised when the Savior appeared to them in a shining form. They realized then that the valleys, although comfortable and safe, do not give a chance to look at reality from a different perspective. Their amazement quickly turned into delight. “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (Mk 9:5)
Each of us has our "Mount Tabor". For some it will be time spent with loved ones, for others - to pursue a life passion; something that allows us to "transform", and therefore be more and fully. Surely everyone has experienced something like this in their lives - moments full of inner joy and the feeling that you are in the right place at the right time. Very often we discover something like that on the mountains.
During the mountain hike, we can relax and calm down. The beauty and severity of the mountain landscape as few things in the world make us believe that we are only a pollen in the face of the forces of nature and the power of mountain peaks. Yet even " The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth" (Ps 97: 5).
People have always looked for the divine element on the mountains. Monasteries, hermitages, places where spirituality developed, were not created in the lowlands, but on mountain peaks, often in extremely unfavorable conditions, suspended between heaven and earth, far from routine and far beyond the comfort zone. Father Roman Rogowski in "The Mystic of the Mountains" writes that the mountains are "an icon of God and the sacrament of the Most High". It cannot be put better!
Once you discover your Mount Tabor
Moments of joy and fulfillment are not meant to be kept to oneself. If there is something in your life that really draws you, makes your heart beat faster and your heart beat faster, show it to others. There are more people immersed in dark around you than you think. Maybe your "Mount Tabor" will make someone else "transform" too? Peter did not want to come down. He liked to stay with the transfigured Jesus and not think about the things that were left below. But that's not what God is after. Mount Tabor was one of Jesus' last stops before Jerusalem. After the glory experienced by the apostles in the presence of the transfigured Christ, something else was to come. The Lord's transfiguration was to strengthen the disciples against the humiliation that Jesus was to experience. Our "Tabor Mountains" do not last forever either.
If you are just experiencing something positive, remember it well. When a crisis occurs - and it does come sooner or later - you will know that it will end, too. The biblical story of the transfiguration on Mount Tabor teaches us to take good experiences to the "valleys" of our daily life, remember and share them with others. Then for what we give our heart away,it will cease to be just a momentary pleasure, becoming something that brings hope to others and strengthens us.
One more thought
They go blindly, with no security, no certainty of tomorrow. Because the Lord invited them.
We meet Peter, James and John with Jesus on Mount Tabor. Invited by the Lord to walk together, they are witnesses of his prayer, conversations with Moses and Elijah, they see their Master in the glory of heaven and hear God's voice addressed directly to them: " This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!" (cf. Mk 9:7).
The disciples had already fulfilled this command once, left their nets and followed the Lord. They are also with him now because he himself invited them for a journey. They go blindly, without security, with no certainty of tomorrow, without a precise time to reach their goal. They go because their Master goes with them. They go after the hardships of climbing to see God in the light, to touch the mystery, and then descend from the top to the other Apostles and continue their journey with them. They go further - that is, towards Jerusalem, the place of God's death and resurrection.
This is also mine and your life of faith. With knowledge reaching "only today", to one stage of the road, the Lord will take care of the next one. In a proper time, He will set a path and a task to be undertaken. Here the Lord comes with us, who perfectly knows our spiritual condition. We must listen to Him, and he will plan the journey so that where we least expect it, he will illuminate our "now" with the light of his Face. And then, he will lead us into everyday life, to the communion of the Church in which we all, through the cross and resurrection, are heading towards eternity, towards the fullness of life with God in the glory of his kingdom.
There is only one condition that God reminds us of: " Listen to him!"
Until Tomorrow
fr. george