Glory veiled

Gospel
Lk 9:28b-36
Jesus took Peter, John, and James
and went up the mountain to pray.
While he was praying his face changed in appearance
and his clothing became dazzling white.
And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus
that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep,
but becoming fully awake,
they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus,
“Master, it is good that we are here;
let us make three tents,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
But he did not know what he was saying.
While he was still speaking,
a cloud came and cast a shadow over them,
and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.
They fell silent and did not at that time
tell anyone what they had seen.

Sermon

On his way to Jerusalem, Our Lord gave his closest followers a glimpse of his true glory. We are told they "kept awake". By contrast they were to fall asleep in Gethsemane when accompanying Jesus to another hill. Surely we would keep awake if we could have a glimpse of Jesus in his heavenly glory. But the ancient Jewish rabbis said that all signs of God's glory were removed from the earth 'when man fell'. In a sinful world, we are pilgrims: we will only feel truly at home in heaven.

But if the outward signs of God's presence are veiled from our eyes, he is nonetheless with us. When the fathers of Vatican II called the Eucharist the 'source and summit of the Christian life' they wanted to draw us to centre our lives on the most excellent(though veiled) presence of Christ on earth in the Blessed Sacrament at Mass. This is why I said last week that participation at Mass should be at the heart of our Lenten spiritual overhaul.

But there is more: Pope John Paul II wrote the following in his letter to bishops and priests on Maundy Thursday in 1980: 'Adoration of Christ in the Sacrament of love must also find expression in various forms of Eucharistic devotion: personal prayer before the blessed Sacrament, hours of adoration, periods of exposition, prolonged and annual (Forty Hours) - Eucharistic Benediction, Eucharistic Processions....' All these devotions should form part of our prayer lives in this parish. Some already do but have to be taken up by the majority of the faithful. The Pope concludes: 'The Church and the world have a great need of Eucharistic worship. Jesus waits for us in the Sacrament of love. Let us be generous with our time in going to meet him in adoration and in contemplation that is full of faith and ready to make reparation for the great faults and crimes of the world. May our adoration never cease'.

Fr William Massie,

St Peter's, Scarborough.