Mk 9:2-10
A fictional story titled “The Piano,” passed around by e-mail to “sustain and console” people, tells of a mother, her son, and a concert pianist. A woman arranges piano lessons for her young son. Wishing to encourage him, she takes him to a concert featuring the great pianist Ignace Jan Pade rewski. After they are seated, the mother spots a friend a few rows away and goes over to greet her.
Left alone, the little boy stands and wanders away. He finds himself before a door marked “No Admittance.” The sign means nothing at all to him.
When the house lights are dimmed for the concert to begin, the mother returns to her seat and discovers that her son is missing. The stage curtain rises. At the center of the stage is a Stein way piano. On the keyboard her little boy is innocently picking “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
The great piano master makes his entrance, moves to the piano, and whispers in the boy’s ear, “Don’t quit. Keep playing.” Paderewski then reaches down with his left hand to fill in the bass. Soon his right arm reaches around and adds a running obligato. The audience is enchanted.
“That’s the way it is with our heavenly Father,” the story concludes. “What we can accomplish on our own is hardly noteworthy. But with the hand of the Master, our life’s work truly can be beautiful.”
During the season of Lent, we accompany Jesus on the way to Jerusalem. It is a journey that Jesus would have wanted to avoid, since he himself had predicted that he would suffer greatly and be rejected by the religious leaders in the holy city. But he felt that he had to follow God’s “way” (Mk 8:31-33).
Today’s liturgy proposes a pause on this difficult journey to put things in proper perspective. The ascent to Jerusalem is destined not for tragedy but for glory. The cross, a symbol of shame, suffering, and death, will become an icon of victory with Jesus’ resurrection. It is the resurrection which gives light to everything, and the transfiguration of Jesus on a high mountain is in anticipation of the resurrection. The transfigured appearance of Jesus, the voice of the Father declaring Jesus as the Son, and the appearance of the cloud which is an image of the Holy Spirit are elements of the resurrection.
The transfiguration, writes Pope John Paul II, “is not only the revelation of Christ’s glory, but also a preparation for facing Christ’s cross. It involves both ‘going up the mountain’ and ‘coming down the mountain.’ The disciples who have enjoyed this intimacy with the Master, surrounded for a moment by the splendor of the Trinitarian life… are invited to return to the valley, to share with Jesus the toil of God’s plan and to set off courageously on the way of the cross” (Vita Consecrata, n 14).
In the imagery of the above story, for Jesus who bears the limitations of his humanity, the “Master” is the heavenly Father. Jesus hears the voice from heaven telling him, “You are my beloved Son. Don’t quit. Continue playing. Continue your journey.”
We may also see the glorified Jesus as the “Master” and ourselves as the young novices. We feel his loving arms around us, and we hear his voice encouraging us to follow the path he trod. Knowing that his strong hands are supporting us, we are confident that our feeble efforts to be faithful will bear fruit.