JESUS’ APOSTLES OF GIVENNESS
“Jesus took Peter, 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 fuller on earth could bleach them. . . .
Then . . . from the cloud came a voice,
‘This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.’
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” Mark 9:2-10
At first glance, the story of the Transfiguration sounds like something that was fabricated, but when one begins to look at the pieces of the story, one sees how it is a necessary component of Jesus’ mission. It was never a part of God’s plan that Jesus, the God-man, would remain physically among humanity, but it was always God’s plan that God would be close by.
Instead of beginning our contemplation of this Gospel event by looking at the Transfigured Christ, let us first look at the three Apostles who witnessed this totally unexpected Transfiguration: Peter, to whom the Post-Resurrection Jesus said, “Do you love Me more than these?” (John 21:15) John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 20:2) and James, the first Apostle to give his life for his belief in Jesus as the God-man.
Would the mission of Jesus have moved forward had God not seared into the minds and hearts of these mere men, an experience of the pure givenness1 of the Triune God? Probably not. O, the Wisdom of God!
And as Peter, James and John moved beyond this moment, would they view things differently now that they saw their friend in this never-before seen light? Would they simply forget about this? Or would everyone and everything be seen through this extraordinary experience of Jesus in all of the glory of God, the glory of God’s total givenness (being in the state of giving)? Were Peter, James and John led by this experience to an awakening of their own capabilities for givenness?
Today, Jesus is still Jesus. We, like Peter, James and John, need to allow ourselves to ‘see” the Transfigured Jesus and let those momentary encounters lead us to be today’s apostles of givenness.
Sister Loretta
- Givenness is being in the state of giving. Is givenness par excellence the nature of our God, the Trinity of Persons?