Transfiguration Homily
by Brother David
In 1955, two psychologists, Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham, devised a tool called the Johari Window, which was based on two key concepts:
1. By disclosing information about ourselves, we build trust with others.
2. By receiving information from others, we are able to resolve our own personal issues.
These are basic concepts, but the interesting thing is how they set the “window” up to illustrate the process.
When we look at the history of God, so to speak, in human terms, and when we look at the Scriptures as the revelation of God in human history, what we see, slowly but surely, is God sharing information about Godself so that we can come, finally, to trust God.
The picture of God changes drastically as we go through the Scriptures from a very punishing God, evidenced in much of the Pentateuch, to a loving God we find depicted in some of the prophets and some of the Psalms, and the unfolding of this historical God who guides Israel through time, and finally in Jesus, the anointed one of God, a final revelation of Who God is. As we consider this history, this progression, the words from the troparion for Transfiguration come to mind:
When you were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, you showed your friends as much of your glory as they could bear. So now, for us sinners too, let this same eternal light shine forth, by the prayers of the Theotokos. O Giver of Light, Glory to You.
When I was a child, it wasn’t ethical principles or a deep love for my parents that kept me on the straight and narrow; rather, it was that, if I misbehaved, bad things would happen. I think this punishment/reward dynamic is a part of where we all come from, both as individuals and, in some ways, as a species, a people. However, as we grow, both individually and collectively, we develop a different awareness of what it means to be human and a different awareness of what it means to interact ethically and morally with other human beings.
This is where Jesus takes us. Because of Jesus, we have a completely different anthropology – a completely different understanding of what it means to be human from what has ever gone before. The world after Jesus is different from the world before Jesus. In the world before Jesus, before Christianity cane into its own in the first couple hundred years, it was perfectly fine to take a sickly infant and leave him or her at a crossroads or in a field to die. In Rome, before Christ, a man could kill his wife or children with impunity. Slavery was all through the world. Owning another human being was perfectly acceptable – in fact, much of the ancient economy was based on the owning of people.
With the coming of Christ and Christianity all of that changes because of what is revealed at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor: the inherent beauty, dignity, and sanctity of the human person – of every human person – so that the sickly child is as valuable as any healthy person, so that women and children should never be harmed just as no one else should ever be harmed, so that no person should be owned by another because everyone belongs only to God.
Gregory of Nyssa, in the 4th century, preached against slavery based on this ideal of the inherent dignity of every human being. How long has it taken us to catch up with that awareness? Have we, in fact, caught up with that awareness? How long does it take us to come to the awareness that black people, Hispanic people, Native American people, aboriginal people are just as good as white people? Or that Tutsi are just as good as Hutu? Or that Armenians are just as good as Turks? And yet, that awareness is given to us in Jesus, the Christ.
And if this awareness is given to us in history on a collective level, how much more must it be with us on an individual level? How much more do we Christians today have to look at each other and every other person with an eye to the inherent beauty, dignity, and sanctity as revealed by and in Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor?
This is very hard because, when we look at Jesus transfigured on Mount Tabor, we need to also be aware of that other transfiguration of Jesus on the cross, where we see God dying. This is where this awareness and the action based on this awareness always takes us: to the cross – to that pain and suffering where we fight against ourselves.
I can be one of the most snarky people in the world – and I know better. And the minute I’ve done it (or 5 or 6 hours later), I recognize that I’ve done something not good. And sometimes, if I have the humility, I can go back and make amends for my actions. And a lot of times, I can’t.
What do I know about myself that others know? What do I know about myself that others don‘t know? How transparent can I become? Jesus shows himself to his disciples for who he really is. Jesus has no secrets. Jesus says, “What you hear me say, shout from the rooftops.” Through the prophet Isaiah, God says, “Do not seek me in vain. Do not seek me in dark places. Seek me in the light.” Do we stand in the light or do we hide in dark places? Do we add a 5th pane to the Johari Window – the pane of deception? The pane of lies? The pane of secrets? Which translates into the pain of deception, the pain of lies, the pain of secrets, where we cannot grow because everything becomes blocked.
Jesus shows us a way. In the Transfiguration, we are called to an action of change, of repentance to become fully who we are, so that the image and likeness in which we were formed is visible to all and so that, in our own understanding, in our own transfigured sight, we see that image and likeness in each person around us – and we honor it.
In 1955, two psychologists, Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham, devised a tool called the Johari Window, which was based on two key concepts:
1. By disclosing information about ourselves, we build trust with others.
2. By receiving information from others, we are able to resolve our own personal issues.
These are basic concepts, but the interesting thing is how they set the “window” up to illustrate the process.
When we look at the history of God, so to speak, in human terms, and when we look at the Scriptures as the revelation of God in human history, what we see, slowly but surely, is God sharing information about Godself so that we can come, finally, to trust God.
The picture of God changes drastically as we go through the Scriptures from a very punishing God, evidenced in much of the Pentateuch, to a loving God we find depicted in some of the prophets and some of the Psalms, and the unfolding of this historical God who guides Israel through time, and finally in Jesus, the anointed one of God, a final revelation of Who God is. As we consider this history, this progression, the words from the troparion for Transfiguration come to mind:
When you were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, you showed your friends as much of your glory as they could bear. So now, for us sinners too, let this same eternal light shine forth, by the prayers of the Theotokos. O Giver of Light, Glory to You.
When I was a child, it wasn’t ethical principles or a deep love for my parents that kept me on the straight and narrow; rather, it was that, if I misbehaved, bad things would happen. I think this punishment/reward dynamic is a part of where we all come from, both as individuals and, in some ways, as a species, a people. However, as we grow, both individually and collectively, we develop a different awareness of what it means to be human and a different awareness of what it means to interact ethically and morally with other human beings.
This is where Jesus takes us. Because of Jesus, we have a completely different anthropology – a completely different understanding of what it means to be human from what has ever gone before. The world after Jesus is different from the world before Jesus. In the world before Jesus, before Christianity cane into its own in the first couple hundred years, it was perfectly fine to take a sickly infant and leave him or her at a crossroads or in a field to die. In Rome, before Christ, a man could kill his wife or children with impunity. Slavery was all through the world. Owning another human being was perfectly acceptable – in fact, much of the ancient economy was based on the owning of people.
With the coming of Christ and Christianity all of that changes because of what is revealed at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor: the inherent beauty, dignity, and sanctity of the human person – of every human person – so that the sickly child is as valuable as any healthy person, so that women and children should never be harmed just as no one else should ever be harmed, so that no person should be owned by another because everyone belongs only to God.
Gregory of Nyssa, in the 4th century, preached against slavery based on this ideal of the inherent dignity of every human being. How long has it taken us to catch up with that awareness? Have we, in fact, caught up with that awareness? How long does it take us to come to the awareness that black people, Hispanic people, Native American people, aboriginal people are just as good as white people? Or that Tutsi are just as good as Hutu? Or that Armenians are just as good as Turks? And yet, that awareness is given to us in Jesus, the Christ.
And if this awareness is given to us in history on a collective level, how much more must it be with us on an individual level? How much more do we Christians today have to look at each other and every other person with an eye to the inherent beauty, dignity, and sanctity as revealed by and in Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor?
This is very hard because, when we look at Jesus transfigured on Mount Tabor, we need to also be aware of that other transfiguration of Jesus on the cross, where we see God dying. This is where this awareness and the action based on this awareness always takes us: to the cross – to that pain and suffering where we fight against ourselves.
I can be one of the most snarky people in the world – and I know better. And the minute I’ve done it (or 5 or 6 hours later), I recognize that I’ve done something not good. And sometimes, if I have the humility, I can go back and make amends for my actions. And a lot of times, I can’t.
What do I know about myself that others know? What do I know about myself that others don‘t know? How transparent can I become? Jesus shows himself to his disciples for who he really is. Jesus has no secrets. Jesus says, “What you hear me say, shout from the rooftops.” Through the prophet Isaiah, God says, “Do not seek me in vain. Do not seek me in dark places. Seek me in the light.” Do we stand in the light or do we hide in dark places? Do we add a 5th pane to the Johari Window – the pane of deception? The pane of lies? The pane of secrets? Which translates into the pain of deception, the pain of lies, the pain of secrets, where we cannot grow because everything becomes blocked.
Jesus shows us a way. In the Transfiguration, we are called to an action of change, of repentance to become fully who we are, so that the image and likeness in which we were formed is visible to all and so that, in our own understanding, in our own transfigured sight, we see that image and likeness in each person around us – and we honor it.
Comments
Post a Comment