A Mountaintop Experience

Second Sunday of Lent February 25, 2024

Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18 Ps 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19 Rom 8:31b-34 Mt 17:5 Mk 9:2-10

Are you familiar with the expression “mountaintop experience?”  This phrase, from a Christian perspective, has come to mean a moment of significant revelation given by God, like in our first reading from Genesis, or a time of feeling especially close to God, or perhaps, like the disciples in our Gospel reading today, an experience of seeing Jesus as never before.

As Disciples of Christ, many of us, if not all of us, will experience having different moments of mountaintop experiences in our lives.  Sometimes they may occur when we are on a retreat or at a conference, where we are seeking to grow closer to God.  At other times they may occur during a pivotal moment in our lives like a wedding, the birth of a child, or the death of a loved one.  They are typically unexpected and unplanned and may even occur when experiencing a beautiful sunrise or sunset, or while out experiencing the beauty of nature on a hike or while camping.  They may occur when we are in deep prayer like reciting the Rosary, doing the Stations of the Cross, or spending time in Eucharistic Adoration.

In my short life, I’ve had several different mountaintop experiences with varying degrees, some more intense than others; like the one I shared in my last homily about how the hymn “Pescador de Hombres” touched me in a very profound way while I was on an Evangelization retreat.  And as I was reflecting on these readings, I remembered another experience I had at one of my first retreats I participated in as a youth in High School.

Like most teenagers, I was dealing with a lot in my life: Raging hormones, relationships, sports, academics, family drama, parents who didn’t get me, questions about my faith and morals, and peer pressure to drink, smoke and do drugs.  All while trying to practice and live out my faith participating in youth group, prayer meetings, and weekly Mass. 

It was during this time when I was a sophomore in High School that I went on my first youth retreat at a beautiful cabin retreat center up in the mountains or Riodoso, New Mexico.  On Saturday evening, after dinner, when we had some down time, I hiked up the mountain trail to an outdoor chapel.  I was there alone, and I poured out all of my pain and frustrations as I prayed in front of this large wooden cross, and I broke down into tears and pleaded with God, in a loud voice, to reveal himself to me and what He wanted from me. 

When I was done, I sat there in silence waiting for when it would be time for me to head back down to the cabin for the next session.  In that moment I began to feel an inner peace and a warming of my heart and of my soul.  Inside of my head I heard a voice speak to me, and call me his beloved, and that he is with me always.  When I returned to the cabin many began to ask me where I was and what had happened to me as they exclaimed that my face was pale white and lit up as if I had seen a ghost.  My response was simply “I saw God.”  Not because I encountered him physically, but rather spiritually in my heart and in my soul.  It was after this experience that I began to seriously consider a vocation to the priesthood, which as you can see, did not happen as I stand here before you a husband, a father, and a deacon [close enough!].

Now looking at our first reading from Genesis, there is a beautiful mountaintop experience where God not only reveals himself to Abraham and Issac, but also to his people Israel and to all of us in the recounting of this story.  This story is a prefigurement of God’s love for us, and I encourage everyone to read the full story because our reading today from the Lectionary leaves out a few verses.

In this story, Abraham as the father of Issac, in his willingness to sacrifice his only son to God, shows us the love God has for us and his willingness to allow his only begotten son to be sacrificed for us as a ransom for our sins, so that we could be reconciled to him. 

Issac, who was most likely a young man at this time, carried the wood for the burnt offering on his back up to one of the heights in the land of Moriah like Christ would carry the wood of the cross to Mount Calvary.  And without any struggle, Issac allowed his father to bind him and place him on top of the wood like Christ willingly allowed himself to be bound and nailed to the wood of the cross; his willingness to be our perfect sacrifice.  Definitely something for us to reflect on during this Lenten Season.

In our Gospel reading from Mark, we hear about the Transfiguration of Christ, which in both Mark’s and Matthew’s Gospels occurs just six days after Jesus shares his prediction of his passion and death, and his instructions to the disciples on the doctrine of the cross.  Here the disciples Peter, James, and John have a mountaintop experience as Jesus not only reveals himself in a dazzling way, but also had Moses and Elijah appear with him. 

Moses, who represents the law in the Old Testament, and had mountaintop experiences on Mount Sinai, where he first encountered God in the burning bush and was sent to free God’s people from the bondage of slavery, and again when he received the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God.

Elijah, who represents the prophets and the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, who also had a mountaintop experience on Mount Sinai where he heard the voice of God, not in a furious wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in a fire, but rather in the stillness and quite gentleness of a soft whisper. 

They both now appeared with Jesus as witnesses to the fulfillment of the law and the prophets taking place in the personhood of Jesus as he appears in glory.

Now, my brothers and sisters in Christ, I would like to share with you, that, in order to have a mountaintop experience, we don’t need to go on retreat or attend a conference.  We don’t need to go on a camping trip or hike up a mountain.  We don’t need to experience a sunrise or a sunset, or a lunar or solar eclipse.  While all of these, and many other experiences we have can lead us to having a mountaintop experience with God, I invite you specifically to one - “The Mass!”

Every time we come to Mass; we hear the Word of God proclaimed to us in the reading of Sacred Scripture.  We hear about how God created us out of love, how he forms us and cares for us.  How he gave us his law of Love and wrote it on our hearts.  How he reconciles us to himself through the sacrifice of his Son. 

Every time we come to Mass; we encounter Jesus not only in Word but in Sacrament.  He is transfigured for us upon the Altar when the bread and wine become his body and blood for us, which we call transubstantiation.  A living sacrifice of the Mass in which we participate in the wedding feast of the Lamb!

And so, I ask you now to silence your hearts and ask God to reveal himself to us, in the person of his son, the sacrificial lamb, who willingly became our sacrifice, and is made physically present in the bread and wine which becomes his body and blood poured out for us; and allow this celebration of the Mass to be a mountaintop experience for us.  Amen!

https://www.youtube.com/live/Y6ZJGdV2DFk?si=2Nf2lvHYgP9BtPeq&t=933