There is a great mystique about what happens when one dies. It is often viewed in very earthly terms, a human form presented at the pearly gates or the human rewarded with a mansion of his own 'just down the street' from Jesus' mansion in the sky. I have a preference for the visions of endless buffets of exquisitely prepared delicacies, a small shack with an unlimited garage filled with the finest automobiles, free gas, perfect driving roads and no speed limits. Heaven!
The mystery of death however seems more akin, in reality, to the release of bodily entrapments, when we will see our glorious natures free of human fetters. This reading from Mark reminds me of the movie Cocoon. Steve Guttenberg catches a glimpse of the 'alien' without the stretched out human body suit that they wear. It is a vision of the transfiguration in our reading today from Mark, with glowing, pure dazzling whiteness. Sheer brilliance.
Is that what the separation of our bodies from our souls is like? Is that what is buried and contained within our human forms? I suspect that is somewhat close to the truth. There is a dazzling white brilliance that God created us with. God has no problem seeing that brilliance within even as we try to hide it, cover it, obscure it and even try to negate it. Such obfuscation may be what sin is all about.
Have you ever been in love? Quite often you see unlikely pairs of people. What seem polar opposites and yet they are gah gah, head over heals in love. They see something no one else seems to see. I suspect this kind of love may very well be catching a glimpse of the other person's inner being. They see the transfiguration of the other, the glowing brilliant glorious white essence of the other as created by God. What would the world be if we could see the glory of every other person around us? How beautiful, how radiant, how loving the world could be.
As people of faith we know that God loves everyone and at least as much as God loves ourself. Our challenge, our mission, is to recognize the glory within our self, love it, cooperate with it and share it. Further, it is to try and see or, at the very least, accept, that there is glory and radiance in every person around us as well.
Mark 9:2-13
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up 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. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.
As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean. Then they asked him, ‘Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ He said to them, ‘Elijah is indeed coming first to restore all things. How then is it written about the Son of Man, that he is to go through many sufferings and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written about him.’
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