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One of the ancient images we still use
to describe life is the “journey” that we all make from
the womb to the grave. The image of the journey speaks of
the passage through time and places; it includes the
people we have met, the kind of time we had, and the
successes and failures we have experienced on the way.
Although many people aspire to the same goal in life ,
everyone’s journey is different in its own details. We all
have to make our own journey; it is life’s task that no
one can do for us.
With most of the journeys we make in life we know our
destination and how to get there. If we are unsure, we
just check the map. But our life journey is not so easy.
This is because life is not only a journey it is a search:
we all have to discover for ourselves the path that will
lead us to what we seek. Some of the roads lead us to dead
ends, and unless we want to pitch our tent in a dead end
we move on. We learn that it is important to keep going.
As Robert Louis Stevenson observed. "To
travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the
true success is to labour."
In the course of their lives many people change directions
and explore unfamiliar paths. In today’s first reading we
hear how something happens to Abram that dramatically
changes the course of his life. He is invited to leave the
world of the familiar, his country and his fathers house,
and find his security in the promise of God. He cannot se
either the land or that family he has been promised, yet
he begins his journey without maps. Living as a nomad he
has no land , and with his wife Sarai barren , he has no
children. But he travels hopefully in the belief that one
day his journey will lead to the fulfillment of God’s
promises.
Throughout his journeying Abram experiences setbacks and
trials; but he travels on, rooted in the conviction that
Gods purposes are being furthered. This same conviction
works in the heart of another man who changed direction in
his life: Paul. As we hear from the second reading Paul is
persuaded that the hardships which come from following the
gospel do indeed serve the purpose of God. Something
happened to Paul which altered the whole course of his
life . And even though many people where suspicious of the
new direction he was following .Paul himself maintained
this course until his death. In his death itself God’s
plan was being furthered to know that suffering and death
can further God’s plan is not easy to appreciate.
Especially when that death is our own. This is something
Jesus has to face. Remember too that Jesus has changed
direction in his life – a change that confused his family
and neighbours when he left Nazareth to take up the work
of the wandering prophet. The more Jesus shares his
understanding of the reality of God and the kingdom, the
more determined rare the religious authorities to be rid
of him.
As his ministry develops Jesus became increasingly aware
that to carry out his Father’s mission will bring him face
to face with a violent death. Before he tells us of the
story of the transfiguration Matthew tells us how “ Jesus
began to make it clear to his disciples that he was
destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the
hands of the elders and the chief priests and scribes, to
be put to death and raised on the third day” (16:21).
Matthew tells us that Jesus understands his journey to
death as one which furthers the plan of God
The
Gospels tells us that Jesus did not face the knowledge of
his violent death alone. That kind of knowledge can
paralyze someone. What the story of transfiguration tells
us is that Jesus is enabled to make that journey to
Jerusalem in the declared love of the Father. The
direction which Jesus has to follow will cost him his
life. In the story of the transfiguration Matthew shows us
that Jesus is not just the one who is to suffer but that
he is the beloved Son of God. The two go together. The
suffering and the glory are evident in the one person of
Jesus. In the transfiguration the name of Jesus is called
in love: he is named and owned by the father, and we are
all directed to listen to him. In our own journey we can
face difficult decisions more surely in the knowledge that
we are loved and supported. When we hear our name called
in love we can face our road to Jerusalem. The power of
that love funds us to face the future, just as its absence
makes the future a loveless landscape. In the death of
Christ God demonstrated the extremes of his love. It is
that love that we celebrate here. It helps us to travel
hopefully. It enables us to keep on striving until we can
rest at the last in the love that knows our name best.
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