The readings of this Sunday take us through different mountains. The message is simple life is not ups and down but downs and ups. The faith and hope of Abraham are tested on the top of the mountain. The old man Abraham who received all the promises from God and had covenant with God is tested by asking him to sacrifice his only son. Even before the birth of Isaac, “the Lord took him out side and said to him, “look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so” he added, “shall your descendants be”. Abraham put his faith in the Lord.” He put the same trust in the Lord when the Lord asked him to sacrifice his only son. We hear no complains or questions or doubts from Abraham. His son Isaac is the whole wealth of Abraham. God is asking every thing from him.

The second reading takes us to the mount Calvary where we see the love of Christ for us. During Lent we are called to embrace more fully the love of Christ and see Jesus as our only Savior. The evangelists present Jesus’ life as a journey to Jerusalem where he offered himself (his total life) as a sacrifice to God, his Father, to save the whole world. On mount Calvary Jesus sacrifices his life as atonement or for the expiation of the sins of the world.

Tradition says that Transfiguration took place on mount Tabor. This is the anticipated glory of the two sacrifices of the other two mountains. Our journey ends at top of this mountain. Jesus was there to pray and to know the will of his Father regarding his ministry here on earth. Then there came Moses and Elijah who represented the Law and Prophets. Conversing with them he knew the will of his heavenly Father and in that joy he was transfigured. For the disciples, especially for Peter who does not want Jesus to suffer should experience the glory of Jesus with his Father. For James and John who were seeking glory through power, sitting at the right and left should know that real glory can be achieved only by surrendering our will to God. St. Peter says about his experience in his letter, “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty”.

For us, the transfiguration of the Lord is our hope that we also will be transformed and transfigured by the grace of God. St. Paul says it in his letter to the second Corinthians “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is Spirit.”