2^{nd Sunday of Lent
Gen. 15:5-12, 17-18, Phil. 3:17-4:1, Lk. 9:28-36
Fr. Carl McCarthy
March 4, 2007}

        A few years back, I traveled to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to go snow skiing. I had never skied in the Rockies. I had only skied at Paoli Peaks, Indiana, and Sugar Bear Mountain, North Carolina, and I looked forward to this new experience.

      It was a beautiful, cold winter’s day when we arrived at the ski slope. We put on our gear and went to the bunny hill to adjust our equipment and get our ski legs. After a couple of runs down, we decided that we were ready to board the lift and go to the top of the mountain.

      As we ascended on the lift, I kept looking back at the winter landscape behind us and thinking, “how beautiful.” I also thought that it was taking us a long time to get to the top. It had never taken this long at the other slopes where I had skied.   

      Finally, we arrived at our run, and I gently disembarked from the lift and skied down the entrance to the run. It was a gradual decline, and I was skiing great and thinking, “this is a lot of fun.” Then it happened; as I gradually turned the corner, the mountain opened up, and it looked like all of Colorado appeared before me. The run went straight down the mountain, and I began to panic. I was scared to death. I began looking for the exit, the stairs, or another lift to take me down because I did not see any way that I could ski down that mountain. My buddies could see that I was in distress, and they rallied around me, giving me the courage that I needed to ski down the mountain.

       We have mountaintop experiences all the time in life. We need these experiences to give us a lift in life so that we can continue to embrace the challenges that are a regular part of life’s journey. Those who lift us are the people around us who encourage, strengthen and build us up, helping us to become the persons that God made us to be.

      Jesus knew that, the closer he journeyed to Jerusalem and to the ultimate fate of the cross, his disciples would need such encouragement. To provide them with strength, he took them up onto Mount Tabor. There he was transfigured before them. His face beamed like the sun as he changed in appearance. His clothes become dazzling white. No Tide, or bleach, could have gotten them whiter.

      Jesus showed himself to the disciples in this way to give them a glimpse of the resurrection. He had been telling them that he must suffer and die to overcome the power of evil, but yet they did not understand. He wanted to give them this lift and plant this memory in their minds so that when they came to the difficult Mount of Calvary, perhaps they would remember this joy -- a joy that would lead them through his crucifixion and take them to the hope of Easter.

      We are a lot like the disciples. Five great things could happen to us in a given day and one rotten thing, and what would we remember? We remember the one bad thing. And more than likely, we hold onto that bad moment for several days. Life is going to happen. Life is full of terrible and damning things that, if we allow them, will pull us into rotten dispositions. What about the good things that happen in life? What about this past week? What good did you see happen around you? In your family? Among your friends? At work? At school?

      Good takes place around us all the time. These are God moments, moments that can offer us the joy of the transfiguration and help us to remember that, as Christians, we are a resurrection people.