The movie 7 Pounds has a very special message to convey: giving is divine. Will Smith is all set to give 7 pounds of his body organs to 7 different people – 7 being the perfect number. The most beautiful part of generosity is the acceptance from the part of the receiver. The Hispanic lady suffers from the brutality of the husband is given a new life, new home with her kids, and the girl with a heart issue is given a new heart, a new life and the blind Jewish guy was given his eyes. These people experience a moment of grace. Wow! What an experience! A sigh of relief! I have a life now! I am new again! I have a great hope! What a great man! A Mahatma!
The experience of Abram and the experience of the friends of Jesus were similar to this in many respects. Abram was chosen by God for a definite role to be the father of a nation. I am going to take you away from your comfort zone and test you, your faith and your commitment. He was a wandering Armenian. No great responsibility, no children and no knowledge of the ‘wow’ experience of God. He was chosen and was led in deep waters to stretch his limits. After listening to God’s promises we could have easily joked, ‘You must be kidding!’ The people of the 1st covenant were represented by this man to have an intimacy with God on the mountain.
The disciples, so confused and disoriented were led to the mountain. They were out of their comfort zone. These fishermen Peter, James and John were so used to water and fish and nets and boats were dragged to mountain, rocks and moreover an intimacy with Jesus. The receiver does not understand what he was receiving. Jesus was giving them a glimpse of his divinity and his original nature and that his humanness is the will of God. These simple disciples were chosen alongside with the whole Jewish tradition of scripture and prophecy. What an honor! What a privilege! What an experience! The people of the new covenant were represented by these pillars of the church to have an intimacy with God on the mountain.
Just as God showed us how much he loves us by becoming a human person and through transfiguration shows us that this human body can be glorified by God so too every human person has the potential to show his divinity through being fully human, fully alive. Every moment in the life of Jesus’ earthly mission was filled with moments of transfiguration that he was constantly showing us how to be divine in our human condition.
Lent is one such time to constantly finding and expressing our own God-energy in us, the ‘divinity’ in us. We do that not by pretending that we are pious and holy, rather continuously looking for opportunities to love and serve and also praying for more opportunities to show our commitment to God. Husbands taking initiative to be more loving and responsible in bringing unity and peace in the family; wives showing a lot of support and encouragement and leading the way from the front and children respecting and following the guidelines.
This transfiguration happened when the disciples were ready to move out of their comfort zone to the zone that they were not familiar with at all. Climbing up the mountain proves the strength, will power and perseverance of the disciple. Once we have seen the transfiguration of Jesus, it is time to show him with our own God-given potential to reciprocate that mission in the way we are familiar with. You have all received everything freely, now give freely! Amen.
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