Sunday's Word

No one really knows what happened during the days Jesus shared with the trio of disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration. All we really know is that Jesus and his three closest friends climbed a mountain of prayer and entered the presence of God. Something wondrous and miraculous happened to them, something so radiant and mystical that the afterglow never left Peter. Years later, Peter remembered this day, different from all other days, and wrote, still in a kind of holy hush: "We had been eyewitnesses of his majesty."

The Transfiguration took place during an experience of private meditation and prayer - not during a public speech or one of Jesus' tutorials to his disciples. It was an intensely personal experience. While words may fail us after such a profound event, a genuine, spiritual experience can easily withstand our own inability to understand it. We need not "talk an experience out" in order to make it real.

"They saw his glory." High mountains stand in Scripture as places of revelation, glimpses of glory, experiences of revitalization, times of transfiguration. Why has God been so grudging and sparing with holy places where the Divine is manifested?

We don't know. It remains a mystery. There are times when God has nothing to say, when God is silent -either waiting for us to speak or waiting for us to grow in wisdom.

But when God answers by saying nothing, it is still an answer.