The second Sunday of Lent provides us with this well-known Transfiguration Gospel.
“Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them to a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white such as no one on earth could bleach them.” (Mark 9)
Rocky Mountains, Jasper
Mountains, in our Scriptures, are usually considered holy places where suddenly the Sacred seems to embrace us and God is revealed in a special way. I love mountains! I’ve marveled at them since I was a small child and we were all piled into our car and driven to visit my Grandfather Baker. We had to travel through the Rocky Mountains in Jasper to get there, and always, at first sight, it would literally take my breath away. With my nose pressed to the back seat window, I would gaze at each one with wonder and awe. Years later, when I was stationed in Burns Lake, BC. I had the incredible opportunity to ride in a helicopter to the top of a mountain, and we were allowed to get out and gaze at the spectacular sight surrounding us. We were at the top—everything else was below us. It seemed I could not only touch the sky but, “put out my hand and touch the face of God”, as so famously expressed in J.B. Magee’s poem, High Flight.
In an article entitled “Whole Earth Transfiguration”, put out by the Deep Green Church, the authors suggest that in this day of new realities, perhaps there is a new mountain view—another place of sacredness— one that is much, much higher than the mountains we know, or of which Peter, James, and John could never have dreamed.
Astronaut photograph AS17-148-22727 courtesy NASA Johnson Space Center Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth
They describe a view of the Earth, a picture taken in 1972. This picture is unique because it is the only time the camera ever caught the sun directly behind the Moon-Lander and so it spectacularly illuminates the Earth, giving us a view never before seen by humanity. It was transfigured! Maybe today, our mountaintop is space. What would God want to reveal to us today with this Transfiguration of the Earth? https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/1133/the-blue-marble-from-apollo-17 (NASA.gov)
This article then acknowledges the work of Elizabeth Johnson CSJ in providing three practices that might be helpful as we come to grips with our new perspective:
1) “Practices of worship and reverence (in order to understand the sacredness of all things)
2) Practices of holiness and right living (in order to live a sacred life)
3) Practices of justice and right relationships (in order to enable sacredness for others.)”
Our proposed Directional Statement “Moving with Love”, is probably quite significant as we touch our long-held charism of “The Congregation of the Great Love of God”. Perhaps the 1972 photo of our illuminated, transfigured earth is showing us just how inclusive and diverse that would be.
-Sister Irene Baker, csj