The Tabors Behind the Calvaries

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

We contemplate the scene of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, which is always done every year on the Second Sunday of Lent. “Now after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a hill high mountain, off by themselves, and was transfigured before them.” Here already we see a sharp contrast between what the devil did to Our Lord in last week's gospel, when he took him aside and tempted him, to come to a high mountain to tempt him. Here Jesus takes the apostles aside and undoes all that the devil had done to him. The devil is there to deceive with half-truths. He's there to mislead us to place our hope in the world, whether it be in the rocks that he wants us to turn to bread, or to bow down to him so that we get all the kingdoms of the world, or to prove something that we are children of God as he tempted Our Lord to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. Here, Our Lord takes Peter, James, and John aside to show them the truth, not half-truths, but the full truth about himself, about his divinity, about the fact that he is the Son of God. In fact, they hear the voice from the Father speaking from the cloud, “This is my beloved son, hear him.” Jesus manifests himself in full disclosure to the Apostles, not so that they can have hope in the world or some immediate satisfaction, but so that they can have hope in eternal life. That is the purpose of the Transfiguration, so that they remember this experience of divinity, of bliss, of eternity, when it comes time to suffer through the Passion.

In all the Gospels where the Transfiguration is reported, it is reported after an announcement of the Passion where whereby Jesus tells the Apostles that he is going to be handed over, and that he has to suffer and then be raised from the dead after three days. And the Apostles are perplexed, even Peter took Jesus aside and told him that it was not worthy of him to suffer. “Far be it from you, Lord.” And that was a temptation again for Our Lord, to the point that he said to Peter, “Get behind me Satan.” Now Jesus takes them aside to show them the, the other side of the tapestry of the Cross, which is the glory, the glory, that is a consequence of the Cross and can only come after the Cross.

All the Gospels place Tabor in relation to Calvary, in relation to the Passion, and we can think that in this meditation, we can think that there's a special relation, perhaps with another mountain where Jesus prays and that is the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane. There he begins his Passion. There he is not transfigured. Unlike at Tabor, at Gethsemane he is disfigured by his concern, by his worry, by his fear of going to the Cross. He is disfigured by the sweat of blood. But he prays and somehow Our Lord finds a light, light that he carries within, light that allows his humanity to overcome that fear so that he, while at first said, “Father, if it is your will take away this cup from me.” After he prays, after he is transformed by prayer in his humanity, he even asks Peter the rhetorical question, “Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has in store for me?” As if saying, “of course I am.” Where did Jesus get this? Jesus was transformed through prayer. As we read in the Letter to the Hebrews, “for Jesus in the days of his earthly life,” we could think definitely in Gethsemane, “with a loud cry and tears offered up prayers and supplications to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence of mission. And he, son though he was, learned obedience from the things that he suffered.” Well, Our Lord in Gethsemane, he is, he finds he is really transfigured, he has light that comes from having identified his will to the will of his Father. This is a dark hour for Jesus, but he overcomes darkness. As Saint John says, in his prologue, “darkness did not comprehend the light and he is the light.” With his resolve, after prayer or within prayer, to go to the Cross, to approach the Cross, as a, an opportunity for Redemption of all mankind.

When they came to arrest him precisely there at the garden, they came with torches and lanterns. Why? Because these people, the guards that the chief priests had sent to arrest Jesus, they couldn't see in the darkness. They needed light, human light, their own human light, which did not compare with the light that Christ had within his soul, because he prayed, he had an inner light. What is this inner light, which is really the light of the Transfiguration? The real light of the Transfiguration, it is the light that allows him to see the supernatural side of things. It is the supernatural logic of Jesus Christ. It is the logic that he, that he reprimands Peter for not having, “you think along the ways of men, not along the ways of God”—not along the logic of God. “Put your sword away, Peter, therefore. Put your sword away,” you know, in Gethsemane when he cuts Malcolm’s ear off. This is the inner light of prayer, when we pray, we actually are able to see the events of our lives in in a different way. We're able to see the inner meaning. We're able to see the Transfiguration of Our Lord, even though we're on Calvary. We're able to see the Transfiguration, the light of the Transfiguration, behind the, the the suffering, disfigure, disfigured face of Our Lord.

Dante would say that when foreseen, an arrow comes slower, an arrow seems to come slower, and it's true. When we foresee things, they don't take us by surprise and we can handle them a lot better than if they take us by surprise. It's just, that's the way it is. That's a great insight, I think, because in prayer we foresee the Cross. It is precisely this preparation that Jesus has in Gethsemane that allows him to accomplish the Father's will and not be taken by surprise by the devil. We have to be vigilant, therefore, it is prayer then this Lent that we want to make time for. Because we need not only inner light to see all the events of our lives in in a new light, but we need to give light to others. That's what St. Josemaria says in Forge. In fact, it's the first point of Forge, first point of the chapter, Dazzled, Dazzled by Light: “We are children of God bears of the only flame that can light up the paths of the earth for souls, of the only brightness which can never be darkened, dimmed or overshadowed. And the Lord uses us as torches to make that light shine out.” And St. Josemaria concludes, “Much depends on us. If we respond, many people will remain in darkness no longer, but will walk instead along paths that lead to eternal life.” We have that light. We will come back from the mountain, whether it be Gethsemane, Calvary, or Tabor, or your own mountain, the mountain of your difficulties, like Moses, radiating after having spoken with God, after having dealt with him, after having unburdened himself with the Almighty. They will not need to put a veil over our face, because we will be reflecting the glory of the Lord. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians, “as in a mirror” people will see God within us, within our smile, within our peace, within our serenity, our even-keeledness because we have prayed. That's what happens when we pray.

On Mount Tabor, we not only see this relation with Gethsemane in prayer and in light, we also see see it with, well as, as we read in the Gospel, in the robes of Our Lord. “And his garments became shining, exceedingly white as snow as no fuller on earth can whiten.” What does this mean? Amazing, the clothing of Our Lord must have been extraordinarily bright. And if we contrast that with Gethsemane, we realize that his garment, the seamless garment, that will then be taken away is tainted with blood because of the sweat, the sweat of blood. This is a clear, a clear reminder, or actually, it reminds us of what St. John would later say in the Apocalypse, about this divine warrior that comes in a white horse and he is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies of Heaven clothed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. And also this other passage earlier on in the Apocalypse, where St. John is asked by the elder, one of the elders, you know, “these are, these are clothed in white robes, who are they? These who are clothed in white robes, who are they? And where do they come from?” And St. John says, “My lord, you know. And he said to me, ‘these are they who have come out of the Great Tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his temple.’” Our Lord's white robe that shines out in at Tabor is shining and resplendent because he has suffered, because it's sprinkled with his blood. Because just like these martyrs, they have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb. I mean, actually, it's kind of strange that you would wash your robes in the blood of the Lamb, or in any blood, because as any mother knows, blood is very difficult to remove the stain of blood, it just doesn't go away. And my mother told me you have to wash it in cold water, otherwise it doesn't come off, not even with soap, try it. But what does this mean for us? Well, it means that we have to put on Our Lord, Jesus Christ, like St. Paul says, put on the clothing of Jesus Christ; put him as the robe, make him the-our robe, put on his clothing. Where do we do this? In baptism. In fact, at our baptism, we were clothed with a white robe, symbolizing this purity of life that we had received. And you know, at baptism, when we were cleansed of our sins. Lord, we are clothed with a garment that is tattered, and and soiled and dirty, because of our sin. And we look to you to help us wash our robes, our souls. We need to touch the tassel of your garment so that we too can, can be clean, can be cleaned through and through. We want to wash our robes, our souls, in in your blood, in the blood of the Lamb. And it's precisely at Calvary where you shed your blood for us so that we can recover our purity of life, our good deeds. This is what, what the what the robe means, the white robe is the white robe of our, of our pure and and holy deeds. 

We have to thank Our Lord for establishing the sacraments, especially, obviously, the Eucharist was the greatest sacrament, but leading up to the Eucharist, baptism and the sacrament of penance, which are there for the forgiveness of sin, for recovering or gaining our purity of life, or in baptism or recovering it if we have lost it through mortal sin or soiled it through venial sin, we recover this splendor in the sacrament of penance. When we're sincere through and through, think of, you know, you really washing every little item of clothing with the soap that is really the blood of the Lamb. Somehow from the swaddling clothes that we that we see Our Lord have, where at the manger to the Shroud of the crucifixion and every other item of clothing in between that he wears, all of these somehow manifest the inner simplicity, the inner purity of life that he leads, and that he wants to give us and that he wishes for us. We need to put on Our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is precisely in this respect that no fuller on earth, no bleacher on earth, can can actually help us to recover that peace, that inner joy, that inner light that, that we do get with the sacraments. 

Let us make that a point this Lent, perhaps go going to confession. St. Josemaria used to go once a week. And he knew he was not scrupulous. He just said “it's a matter of love for me.” He said, “I need to do this because I love Jesus Christ.” And he found that once a week was the right measure. Some people might think, well, you know, you you must be a big sinner if you go once a week. Actually not not really. It's like, you know, that’ll be the equivalent of telling someone you must be really dirty because you go take a shower once a day. No, actually, you're precisely, you're very clean. So, we should really take advantage of the proximity of Our Lord's forgiveness and mercy with the certainty that comes from the sacrament of penance. What a beautiful way of actually gaining certainty that our sins have been forgiven, and we will be able to shine with the light of Our Lord. 

But at Tabor something else happens there. Peter takes the word, as usual, takes the lead, and starts speaking. And this time as, as St. Mark says, he didn't know what he was talking about. He didn't know what to say he was struck with fear. And he said these words, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. And let us set up three tents, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah,” who appeared next to Jesus there at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. These three tents, what do they represent? The tents in, well, in another Gospel, it also says that somehow the apostles were asleep, or they were heavy with sleep, their eyes were heavy. These tents were, were probably, Peter was referring to the tents that they used to build for the, for the feast of Sukkot, which is the festival of booths where Our Lord and Leviticus prescribes that everyone should live in, in a tent to remind them that they are pilgrims, to remind them that they lived in a tent for 40 years, their ancestors had lived in the tent for 40 years, and that this earth, this world, is passing. But this feast was a joyful feast. And Peter said this because he wanted to kind of prolong this, it was precisely let's prolong this, let's stay here. And whether it is here on Tabor where they want to prolong the bliss on earth, or in Gethsemane, they also fall asleep. And whether it is in that case because they want to run away from reality, kind of be in a dreamy state where they don't have to suffer, it really is not the right attitude to have, either one is not the right or the best attitude to have. We cannot prolong the bliss here on earth and we cannot run away from the difficulties here on earth, by falling asleep or by creating the three tents or whatever. We have to take stock of the Gospel lesson that Our Lord wants to give us that, as he says, or as St. Paul says to the Romans, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that come that will be revealed in us.” If we have to suffer here, we have to know that this is simply you know, passing, it's passing. And if we, if we have bliss here, if we have happiness here, it's also passing. Let's not put our heart or our hopes here on earth. And let's not get overly frightened about the sufferings here on earth either, because they're both passing. Sometimes we don't fear death, what we fear is actually suffering. And we run away from that, like the disciples going back to Emmaus, they ran away from the Cross. And it is Our Lord who has to explain to them, reusing Moses and the prophets, Moses and Elijah right there at Tabor, we see them again. Didn't the Christ have to suffer? He has to open up the Scriptures to us, because we don't seem to get it. And the bottom line is that when we have our hopes correctly placed in that which is eternal. And we realize that we're going to be there soon, because, you know, I don't know if you remember 20 years ago? I remember 20 years ago, 20 years ago like that. And then you realize, well, I only have about two more of those—one, two, and then I'm gone, and you'll be gone. You'll be before Our Lord in no time—it feels like that. We don't have a lasting tent here on earth. So when we have our hopes placed correctly in that which is eternal, and we realize that we're going to be there soon, we somehow are freed up of any worry. We're free actually to do what? To serve, to serve, to serve others, because there's no time. There's no time to think about myself. 

Lord, help me to actually not worry too much about myself, for good or for bad. Whether they chose me or not, or not, whether they, who cares what they think, whether I am going through a hard time now or not. What do I fear? Really, when I see you, Lord, at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, I see that you are with me, you know, and if you are with me, if God is with us, who can be against us, says St. Paul. Who can be against us? Not nothing, you know. St. Paul to the Romans, at the end of chapter eight, says, “For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, Our Lord. Amen.” Period. There's nothing else. Nothing can separate us from Christ. And that's why we are somehow free now, to not worry about ourselves, because we are already taken care of by Our Lord, if we place our trust in him. And now we can actually help others. Do acts of charity, help them, just like Our Lord who came to serve and not to be served, or as St. Paul says, “He did not consider his divinity (Tabor) a thing to be clung to, but emptied himself and taking the form of a slave (Calvary), emptied himself. He became obedient to death, death on a cross, and because of that he was exalted.” Amazing. Lord, help us not to keep anything for ourselves; help us to give up the insurance policy, to not be too concerned about our tiredness, whether we're going to get tired or not, whether we're going to have, you know, the means 10 years from now or not. Really, yes, we have to do our best and work hard and save up and all that, but not really be too concerned. We have to be relatively concerned, but not absolutely concerned to the point that we lose sleep or the point that we're stymied from serving others. Our Lord did not worry about his rest too much, nor his comfort, although he rested and he had a good time with the apostles. 

Let us therefore in considering this scene at Tabor, trying to go to Jesus, look at him, so that we may be enlightened as Psalm 33 says, so that whether we are ill, or suffering, or dying, or we're simply sick and tired of whatever it is that causes setback and contradiction, maybe other people, that we actually try to discover the Tabors behind the Calvaries. Let us discover the Tabors behind the Calvaries. Our Lady was not at Tabor. She didn't need to be at Tabor because she had faith. And Our Lord didn't show, didn't need to show her because she was seeing already the glory of the Lord. She was already, why? Because she was in prayer. She was pure. And she forgot about herself and served others. That's why she was able to actually be at the foot of the Cross, seeing with the eyes of faith, the glory of of Tabor and the wisdom of the Cross, the glory of the Cross. As St. Paul says to the Galatians, “far be it from me but to glory only in the Cross of our Lord.” Let us turn to her this Lent, so she can help us when we are with all too human eyes looking at our dire situation, she will help us to shine a light, a new light, the light of a supernatural outlook.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations which you have communicated to me in this meditation. I ask your help to put them into effect. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.