How Do You Seek God’s Glory?

For it is through that death that He was to be glorified, and it is through His the death that He invites us through our faith to share in that glory.

Hebrews 11:1-7
Mark 9:2-13

Phil 3:20-21.

THE MOUNTAIN-TOP EXPERIENCE

At Transfiguration, the Lord demonstrated his divine power and revealed his glory; the glory he had before the foundation of the world. Christ showed his divine nature to his disciples in order to strengthen their faith so that during his passion they will remember that He is God and all that he has said will be come to pass.

PURPOSE: DEEPENING OF FAITH THROUGH PRAYER AND DIVINE REVELATION

Our Lord has gone up a mountain with Peter, James, and John, to the mountain; His three closest disciples, the three who were the first to be called, the same three who would be with Him in His agony in the garden of Gethsemane. On the mountain as he was praying, before their very eyes, His appearance was changed and they were given a glimpse, a preview, of His radiant glorified body, the shining splendour that would be His after the resurrection.

FAITH IN PRAYER

They walked with Him to the mountain because of their faith in God. One who does not have faith cannot pray. To pray is to go to God’s Mountain, for prayer is the loving awareness of the presence of God. And in prayer we encounter God and acknowledge His presence. This is the Christian attitude to prayer that renders prayer unceasing when its influence permeates the whole life of the praying Christian. In this way, the praying person or community receives a sense of God’s Presence, and having encountered God, experiences the Divine virtues of love and grace, and is being transformed into a better image of God.

CHRIST FULFILLS THE LAWS AND THE PROPHETS

They see Moses and Elijah appear, who represent the two great traditions of the Old Testament – the Law and the prophets, which all pointed to and were fulfilled in Christ. It is important not to overlook the fact that Moses, as great and charismatic as he was as a leader of the Israelites, did not however enter the promised land even though he saw it.

On the other hand, Elijah though being the greatest prophet in Israel, did not live to witness the fulfilment of God’s promise of sending a Messiah. He had to go and come back again in another form before the great and terrible day of the Lord in the person of John the Baptist. This means that the law and prophecy alone cannot take us to salvation, save the intervention of Christ.

CHRIST PURIFiES US

That is why Christ came to purify them and reorder them to Himself who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). The voice of the Father speaking from the cloud confirms this and bids us to listen to Him. Therefore, it will be foolishness to keep to the laws and the prophecies about God while forgetting the God of those laws and prophecies.
This attitude cannot take us to the glorious reward prepared for us. And Jesus knowing this, corrects the apostles and us today, teaching us how to set our priorities right. Instead of taking the cart alone or putting the cart before the horse, we must indeed put the horse before the cart.

That is why He charged them on their way down the mountain, ‘…to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead (Mark 9:9).’ That is, until He completes the Paschal Mystery of suffering, death and resurrection. Therefore, to reach to the glory of God as Christ shows us today, we also must be ready to renounce ourselves, to take up our crosses daily, and follow Him and die with Him, so that we can be raised up at the end.

THE GOSPEL PREACHING OF NOWADAYS

Today there are many wolves in sheep’s clothing who have twisted the message of the gospel reducing the whole good news to material prosperity devoid of suffering. Are you one of them, or do you follow such false teachings? If the Son of God whom you are following accepted willingly the way of the cross to reach His glory, how can you think there is a shortcut to salvation that bypasses the cross? Indeed, there is no Christ without the cross as Christ reminds us today. Hence, anyone who tells you about Christ without the cross is preaching a false gospel and you must flee from him/her.

OUR EXPERIENCE AS DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

This is the experience of Peter, James and John today, who are privileged to have a glimpse of the Lord’s glory. Our prayer is not complete until it achieves this in us when we are transformed and made capable of beholding the Lord’s glory. Have you beheld His glory? Then ask yourself, how do you pray? Do you pray or you say prayers? When we pray, we are immersed in God whom we are communicating with, but then when we say prayers, we are only speaking to God which does not necessarily translate to being united with Him.

PRAYER AND FAITH MAKES US CHILDREN OF GOD

When we pray, God elects us as He does with Jesus today ‘this is my beloved Son.’ Then, we too become His adopted children, united with Him. Because to pray is the first way of obeying God who has commanded us to pray. In Jeremiah 33:3 He says, “call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” That is why Jesus always prayed, and commanded His disciples to pray always and not give up (Cf. Luke 18:1). Therefore, whoever remembers how many times he or she prays is not praying well enough, for the right Christian attitude to prayer is unceasing. In this attitude the spiritual becomes real in our lives and we become reflections of God’s glory to others as and Our faith in God strengthens us and help us to become closer to God.

Jesus was to His disciples. And then, it is no longer we who work but the Mystery of God working in us. To help us achieve this, we must embrace the Word of God and the sacraments, and live in the observance of the pious practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. This is when we can truly claim citizenship of heaven and join the psalmist to say ‘the Lord is my light and my salvation.’ May the Lord make us true reflections of His glory to bring light and salvation to the world. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Fr Joseph Osho