in the transfiguration understood as something that happened to Jesus and that must happen to every one of us if we are to follow him and end up with him in the resurrection, he has discovered the secret of life, the secret of succeeding as a human being. And we must not conclude too readily that we know the meaning of human life, something we learn as we go along. This is a critical moment. We must visit this mountain. It may not be in any dramatic single event. It may be in various ways. And as I concluded last evening, I think it is a profoundly monastic moment.

[01:03]

As you know, among the Buddhists, every layperson, every layman must spend some time in the monastery. And I think even though we don't have that custom, we must try to bear effective monastic witness by showing how important and how fruitful it is to visit that mountaintop, to enter into that cloud, that mystical experience of discovering what life is really for. I'm sure many of you recall the sermon that Martin Luther King gave in Memphis, Tennessee. I think it was the night before he was assassinated, certainly very shortly before. And there's no question that he had a premonition of what was going to happen to him. He didn't know when or how,

[02:08]

He knew that he was in grave danger, and so in that sermon he said, I know not what lies ahead for me, but I am not afraid. I am not afraid because I've been to the mountain. Remember that? I've been to the mountain. I think That is the mountain of the transfiguration where you lose the fear of accepting the lot that God has given to human beings. To deal with adversity and setbacks and weakness and to die. Not to be afraid of being a human being as God intends that. And so it's very important that we get to that mountain, learn that lesson, and listen to Jesus as he gives us this wisdom.

[03:18]

Then we lose fear and move ahead in life, not be afraid to grow old, not be afraid to die. The passion story is the center, the heart of the Gospel. And it's a shame, in a way, that it is not recognized as such. I don't think it's recognized as such. Most of us, in our experience as Christians, reserve the Passion Story for Holy Week. or at least for Lent, you know. Maybe we make the Way of the Cross, or used to do that. And in fact, for most people, the Way of the Cross was the only way that they had of learning about the Passion story. Because in those days, the Passion was read on Palm Sunday, called Palm Sunday then, in Latin, and because it was so long, you didn't have time to read it in English.

[04:30]

Then you had to give out the palms, you had to clear the parking lot. And so, they didn't hear the passion story. On Good Friday, the few that came heard it sung in Latin. Today, we have a shortened version of it on Passion Sunday, and a shortened version of it on Good Friday for those few who come, relatively speaking. And that's about it. My older brother, who's a Benedictine priest at St. Vincent, had an interesting experience one time. He was out on a weekend mission, a typical small parish in Pittsburgh diocese. And he, for one reason or another, didn't have a sermon for Palm Sunday. So he said, I'll just read in English part of the Passion story that had just been read in Latin. And he went back to the rectory afterwards, and the holy name man counting the collection said to him, Father, what was that story you read?

[05:42]

We've never heard that before. Now, I'm not saying that's typical, but my goodness, if the passion story is the heart and soul of the Gospel, so that if we were on a desert island and were allowed only three chapters of the Bible, we'd have to take the passion story. Why is it that we've failed to communicate this effectively? Too often, the only thing they know about the passion is some melodramatic, you know, breast-thumping version of it. given by some preacher who is more interested in shocking and discouraging people than in telling them about the great love of Jesus for us, the love of God for us. So I think we have a very, very important responsibility to restore the passion narrative to its proper place in the consciousness of our people, in our own consciousness.

[06:52]

It is not a story about how much Jesus suffered. He did suffer, but it is the story about how much Jesus loved. And that makes all the difference in the world. Those who love will suffer, but we must never make the mistake of feeling sorry for them. for they have found the secret of life. To suffer because you love is a great blessing. To suffer without loving is meaningless and dangerous. And so we must first of all note this is the story of the love of Jesus and then only the story of his suffering, which then of course is sacrifice. There is a story at the beginning of the Passion narrative about the anointing of Jesus, which I think is intended to emphasize this very fact.

[08:09]

And I recall, after I had discovered and become convinced of the centrality of the Passion story, and decided even though I had a tight syllabus in my course in Synoptic Gospels, I decided I'm going to teach the whole Passion story to these students. However, I wanted to get other things in, too. After all, there is the Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes, and all kinds of wonderful things, parables. So I thought I will leave out this story about the anointing of Jesus, which all scholars agree is an intrusion, is an interruption of the narrative, so that it flows quite naturally without this story. So I thought, I can drop this, save a little time on my syllabus. Then I read that rubric at the end of the story, intended precisely for people like myself.

[09:14]

Jesus said, and truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, including Latrobe, what she has done will be told in memory of her. Don't you dare take that out of your syllabus. You want to give the passion story, you give that story too. Wherever in the whole world this story is told, this part of the story will be included in memory of her. And then I began to wonder, well, what is there so special about this story that it has become indispensable to a proper reading and understanding of the passion narrative? So I probed and pondered, and I came up with an answer which I think is valid.

[10:18]

It's one of those answers that just seems so right that it's almost self-confirming. Let's look at this story. And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the jar and poured it over his head. An anonymous woman came up to him, and she had this cruet, delicate cruet made of alabaster, transparent marble. The cruet itself had great value and it was filled with precious ointment, a few drops of which would fill a room with aroma. And she broke the top off the cruet and poured all of it on his head.

[11:27]

an extraordinary, lavish, extravagant act on her part. And irreversible. It's like she's been waiting all her life for the moment when she will use the ointment. Most of us hope that We have some warning of our death, and I ask for about a week. Lord, give me a week to get rid of my junk, to save the prior, the trouble of doing it. So I can... But in the meantime, I might need some of that junk. So I hang on to it. But give me a week that I can get rid of it. So, you know, we like to have that. I won't need this anymore. This is what I've been saving it for.

[12:30]

She knew it instinctively. Oh, Matthew says she took the cork out of the bottle and poured it on, but Mark wants to make it more radical than that. He broke the top off and poured all of it. An absolute irreversible gesture, and extravagant and wasteful. And there were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was the ointment thus wasted? The disciples murmuring and grumbling, oh, for God's sakes, look what you did, all that ointment. For this ointment might have been sold for more than 300 denarii. Oh yes, they know its value in the marketplace and given to the poor. And they reproached her. We don't know exactly how they reproached her, but they probably clucked their tongues at her.

[13:35]

And I think in a male chauvinist world they might very well have said, typical woman doesn't know the value of things guided by her heart instead of her head. Foolish. But Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing for me. Wasteful, extravagant, foolish, oh no, no, beautiful. A beautiful thing, an admirable thing she has done for me. I think all of us would like to have Jesus say about our lives, that was a beautiful thing that you did during your life. Even though at the time we did it, many might have said, what a waste, what a wasteful way to use your life, living for others, giving up

[14:52]

ambitions of wealth and security, maybe even foolish enough to become a monk, for goodness sakes. Beautiful thing that you have done. For you always have the poor with you and whenever you will, you can do good to them, but you will not always have me. This is a classic example of a text that is misunderstood more often than not. and even has been used as an argument against trying to solve the problem of poverty. And when that letter on the economy came out from the American bishops, in large part under the chairmanship of Archbishop Rembert, And that letter came out, I recall, reading in an editorial in the New York Times, one of those on the editorial page.

[15:54]

And this typical, sophisticated, secular commentator said, that's a, you know, very interesting but impractical letter, unaware of the realities of economics and things like that, you know. Poor bishops, you know, don't know what's going on. He said, we have it on good authority that the problem of poverty is not to be solved. Quoting, in a way, indirectly, quoting the scriptures back to the bishops, we have it on good authority. Jesus himself, the poor you have with you always. So you don't try to really solve this preferential option for the poor. Idealistic nonsense. No, Jesus didn't mean that in the context of the entire New Testament. He cannot have meant that. What did he mean?

[16:57]

I think he meant something quite simply like this. Oh, yes, you want to save this and give it to the poor. You are concerned about the poor in general, which is an excuse for not dealing with the poor in particular. Oh, someday we'll give this to the poor, but the poor in general. Never benefit the poor in particular who need to be cared for. And here I am in front of you, a man about to die, and there is no one so poor as a man the day before he dies. And only this woman has been able to sense my need and my poverty. Because only she is sensitive to such things. You have your mind full of all kinds of other things. And so she has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. She has done what she could to alleviate my need.

[18:00]

Great need, generous response. And truly I say to you, wherever this Gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. I think this story is included in the passion narrative because it strikes the keynote for that narrative. And you know how important a keynote is. The key signature of a piece of music is important for the whole piece of music. If you don't read the key right in the beginning, it's not going to come out right. So it's important to get off on the right foot to understand what this story is about. And I think this little story is told to help us to view the passion story from the right perspective.

[19:03]

Why? Because the passion story will be Jesus breaking the alabaster cruet of his body and pouring out the most precious ointment of his blood on all of us who are about to die. I think that's why this is the opening of the Passion Story and indispensable to it, because it tells us what to look for in the Passion Story. To look for this extraordinary love and generosity of Jesus, which caused him to do this wasteful thing, this extravagant thing of giving his life totally and absolutely for us, because he knows our need, because we are about to die.

[20:09]

And if we read that key signature properly, then we will understand the music and it will be all about the love of Jesus and about how costly love is, but about how privileged those are who can love like that. Jesus then takes his disciples to the upper room celebrate the Passover meal with them. We are not given the ritual of the Passover meal, but we can pretty easily reconstruct it. The important thing is the evangelist wants us to know that at a certain point in the meal Jesus changes the rubrics, changes the ritual. I think the disciples sitting around the Master And having celebrated Passover with him before, I think, here it goes, some old familiar things, story from Exodus.

[21:22]

And all of a sudden he says something new and all the heads come up and look toward him. Because he took the bread and he broke it and said, this is my body. This is me. This is my life. This is my meaning. Bread broken. Not just bread, but bread broken. And then he took the cup and said over it, too, as never had been said before in the ritual, this cup is the cup of my blood, which is poured out for you. Not only blood, but blood poured out. So he tells them, in this last opportunity to speak to them and tells them the whole meaning of everything that he has tried to do and teach up to this point, and the whole meaning of everything that will happen on that next day.

[22:26]

Bread broken, body broken, blood poured out. And as you know, of course, the Eucharist, the sign, the sacrament of the Eucharist perfectly and properly presented only in the Axio, only in the Mass. Because only there is the bread broken and the blood consumed. All other manifestations of the Eucharist are secondary. And that reminds us then that the Eucharist, to join Jesus and to understand the message of the Eucharist, means that I commit myself, when I receive this sacrament, to break my body, to pour out my blood in love and sacrifice for others. Sometimes I like to imagine someone not too far-fetched, someone who doesn't particularly care for community. I mean, people get on my nerves.

[23:29]

One of our fathers used to say, I don't mind community, it's people I can't stand. And another one said, 50th anniversary. Someone said, congratulations. Yes, he said, I have survived 50 years of fraternal charity. Well, those little things, we can relate to that, you know. So I can imagine someone who says, oh, I'm not going to go to recreation. No, I get bored with those people. I'm going to go down and visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. That's what I'll do. I'll get a reputation for being a holy man. I can avoid recreation. Well, the only thing that surprises me is that Jesus doesn't open the door in the tabernacle and say, get out of here, you fraud. Don't you dare come down here, and later on, you're my friend, when you should be up there, not trying to be entertained, but trying to help others to deal with life.

[24:38]

So, it's important to remember the deepest meaning of the Eucharist and what it means in terms of our life. And then Jesus took his disciples and went out to Gethsemane. Gethsemane, which in many ways is the high point of the whole Passion story. Much more significant, much more meaningful, much more difficult in some ways for Jesus than even the crucifixion. Because at Gethsemane, Jesus accepted what the Father had in store for him. As you know, when we die, the hardest part will be to accept the fact that we are dying. And once that happens, often there is calm and relatively peaceful passing on to the end.

[25:44]

It's very, very hard to agree to die. Jesus had seen the storm clouds gathering for a long time in his ministry, and he knew that he was on a collision course with the power brokers, especially after his prophetic action in the temple which in effect told them that they had turned religion into something that they controlled, something represented by temple worship. It was rigid and scrupulous and under human control. They were men who had worked hard to establish this religion in the way they thought it should be and were not about to change it, even for a profit.

[26:48]

They had perverted religion to make it a source of guilt instead of hope, a source of bondage instead of freedom. You have destroyed the law, Jesus said, the Torah, the charter of freedom, You have destroyed it by subjecting it to human traditions and interpretations and making it the opposite of what God intended. Jesus had not chosen this conflict. He wanted simply to give hope, to show the Father's love. Not indulgent love, but the love that demands sacrifice, true love, And he cannot turn aside now, he cannot forget the people to whom he has given hope, even though he is misunderstood and rejected by those in authority.

[27:58]

He tries to prepare the disciples for what is coming in the Passover meal. Bread broken, wine poured out, I am one who puts aside human power so that divine power may work through me," is what he said, in effect. And after the meal, he leads his disciples to the garden, a familiar place, so familiar that Judas knew exactly where to find him. And he enters into the moment of truth, in many ways the most critical moment of the passion story. And because it is so important, it is carefully staged by the evangelist. Jesus is shown with the twelve, or the eleven, and then he moves away from the larger group, taking with him only Peter, James and John. These are those three more intimate disciples that he took with him to the Mount of the Transfiguration.

[29:09]

who are more likely to understand his mood, and then he leaves them too and goes alone deeper into the garden. I am not sure that historically Jesus ever left his disciples. What the evangelist is telling us is that Jesus is entering into a world where the disciples cannot follow. And he describes it visually, but it is really a spiritual and psychological experience on the part of Jesus. He is entering into a private, personal world because he has no choice. He is about to die. His death is imminent. The death of the disciples is not imminent. And so he goes to that place to deal with what is about to happen to him, into that inner personal sanctuary where alone one can confront ultimate reality.

[30:28]

Oh, we are very much afraid of that place. It's terrible stillness and silence. It's the place that we visit when we really pray. the place where we can see and taste our nothingness, our contingency, our total lack of control over the important things in life, and our fragility, our humanity. It is a human experience that is no longer protected and buffered by distractions or illusions. That is why truly personal prayer is so important, because it makes it possible for us to enter a sanctuary that we will have to enter sooner or later. And if we've been there before, it helps. Jesus, as a human being, is overwhelmed by the imminence of his death.

[31:33]

The Gospel says he was greatly distressed and troubled, but that does not do justice to these very strong Greek verbs that are almost scandalous. Really, they say that he had a sense of horror and dismay and panic. It is as if he has tried and succeeded up to now to hold off this dam, this flood with a mound of distractions. But now it breaks over him. It is important to notice here, for those of us who since the Aryan heresy have been endowed with high Christology, emphasizing the divinity of Jesus almost to the complete loss of a sense of his humanity, it is important for us to note with Pierre Benoist in his book on the Passion that here Jesus is no pretender

[32:56]

He is not pretending to be in panic for the benefit of the disciples. When he threw himself full length on the ground, much as King Saul had done after the witch of Endor told him there was no hope, but obviously with greater faith than Saul, that he was experiencing the normal experience of a human being, the presence of finality in death. Nothing to be ashamed of if we are filled with fear, fright, when death approaches. Jesus did too. It says that the disciples were overcome with drowsiness and were sleeping, could not keep their eyes open.

[34:05]

Here again, I am not so sure that they really were that sleepy and not like those famous Flemish paintings where the disciples are lying all over each other with their mouth open and stuff. No, no, I think here again the author uses a literary image to convey the tremendous gulf that has appeared between Jesus and the disciples. He is dying. They are not. He was never more wide awake in his whole life. They are drowsy, cannot keep awake. A great gulf has opened between him and them. And this reminds us that when it comes time to die, no matter how many people may be gathered around our bed, we die alone.

[35:08]

And there is a great distance between us and them. And if you've ever visited someone who is dying and tried to comfort them, you sense, I think, that they are in another world. You are not dying. And you can only reach over and try to say something helpful. But you cannot join them. So Jesus is alone confronting death. His disciples are there, and he's happy to have them there, but they cannot really be with him. And then he turns to the Father, Abba Father. This Father is no stranger to him. I have talked with you many times before. I have often turned aside to spend time with you, to tell you about the response of the crowds, about my fears and joys

[36:23]

my questionings, my sense of satisfaction, my premonitions, my confidence, my gratitude, my concern about my mission. I have come to know you and to feel at home with you. And I have learned that when I am with you I am refreshed. And that's why the disciples asked him to teach them how to pray because they noticed that when he came back from those moments alone, he looked like a new man, refreshed, restored. Teach us also the secret that you have found. And he says, all right. When you pray, say, Our Father, Abba Father. Then he asks the questions that every human being must ask the Father. Can this cup not pass from me? Is this really what you want of me?

[37:27]

I don't think Jesus is saying, I never knew that this would be the cup for me. I think in a way he's probably saying, must it be tomorrow? We read in the Psalms that with you, Father, a thousand years is like a day. Why not another year? Does it have to be tomorrow? It's not death that is the problem frequently, it's the imminence of death that is the problem. And I think when Jesus posed this question, all the angels held their breath. because they knew that it had to be tomorrow. And they wait for Jesus to agree. And he does, of course. Father, I know that you love me.

[38:30]

I trust you. If it is your will that it should be tomorrow, that's all right. That's the way I want it too. Let it be tomorrow. not my will but yours be done." This is the most important moment in the history of the world, I think. When Neil Armstrong got off that space capsule and put his foot on the moon, he said, one short step for man, one giant step for mankind, Richard Nixon, the next day, or in the next day's paper, Washington Post, is quoted as saying, this was the most important event and achievement since the creation of the world.

[39:31]

Well, you can't accuse him of understatement. The most important achievement since the creation of the world. That covers a lot of ground. And I remember when I heard this, I was giving a summer course in Kansas, and I thought to myself, whatever happened to Holy Week? Well, you see, in our American religion, our American civil religion, there is no Holy Week, there is no Christ. It's kind of a bland form of Unitarianism. And so, you just don't deal with Holy Week. Oh, some people think something happened at Holy Week, but we really don't know too sure what it was, so don't worry about that. But something did happen at Holy Week, and it truly was the most critical event in the history of the world. And this is when it happened, when Jesus said, Father, not my will, but yours be done.

[40:37]

And thereby established what constitutes the most important decision anyone ever makes a decision that will change the world if it ever is changed. The degree that it is converted will depend upon how many of us can say this. Trust is the most beautiful fruit of love. To help another is a sign of love. To trust another is the perfect sign of love. Father, I do not understand, but I accept because I know that you love me, that this is best for me and for those whom I love." And so the struggle turns into acceptance. He goes back to the disciples and says to them, watch and pray.

[41:44]

He is not really scolding them. I don't think they had any choice but to be drowsy. After all, they're only human beings. He is reminding them, oh yes, this is my turn, but your turn will come. The pirasmos, the trial, the final grinding and sifting will come to everyone. And in preparation for that you must watch and pray. You must not let this come upon you as if you didn't know it would happen. Watch and pray now that when it comes you will know how to act, how to respond. And how do we watch and pray? By making room for God, by setting time aside for prayer, by not being so busy that we cannot enter into that terrible silence where we learn not to be afraid of our nothingness because God is there, where we learn to be sustained by God, where we learn how to be on familiar personal terms with God so that when

[43:15]

We are face to face with the end. We will not say, what is happening? We will say, oh yes, so this is it. Abba Father, I trust you. The angels hold their breath again when that moment comes for us. And hopefully we will not disappoint them. And so we pray now and we watch and we try to be in the presence of God, in the reality of God's presence. And then we are ready for whatever may happen. And if we can trust the Lord to the end and live out the implications of the Transfiguration discovery, then we will enter into that life which God reserves for us.

[44:20]

We have no idea really what it is. It is beyond comprehension. It is the fruit of trust. Francis Durwell in his book on the Resurrection, it's an old book but it was a radically new book when it was written, Up to that time the resurrection was simply an argument for the divinity of Jesus. Oh no, no, the resurrection is much more than that. He said, what is the resurrection? It is Jesus being embraced forever by the Father. Welcome home, my son. This is the reward for those who trust. Welcome home, my son. This is what we all hope to hear. And we can prepare for this wonderful homecoming by watching and praying now.

[45:20]

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