Life is full of contradictions.  At one moment amazing joys.  Falling in love for the first time…the birth of your first child…earning an A on your Algebra final.  We all have little miracles in our lives…glimpses of pure joy that for just a moment give us the feeling that…no matter how our backs are against the wall…everything’s going to be OK.  These are the times in our lives impervious to disappointment.   And when they occur we get a short reprieve from the realization of how tough life can really be.
 
Because just as common…in fact more common…is the other side of the contradiction…life’s painful challenges.  The death of someone you so desperately loved…the frustration and hurt of a broken relationship…the admition that the dreams you once held so deeply in your heart probably aren’t going to come true.  We all have of these moments…times when God seems far away…distant…maybe not even listening to us at all.  And the reality is that we vacillate back and forth within this contradiction.  Between utter amazement at the gifts of God in our lives and the stark reality that life remains a painful chain of difficulties where God seems nowhere to be found.
 
What I’ve just described is one of life’s non negotiables…no matter how wealthy or how poor we are…no matter how educated…no matter our nationality…whether we work at HEB or Wallmart...whether we follow Texas or Texas A&M we will and do experience this contradiction.  In the end it’s the occasional encounters with miracles…the glimpses of God that make the overwhelming ordinary able to be endured.  It had to be the case for Peter, James, & John. 

This contradiction is the real story of the Transfiguration. And We are part of that story.  In fact, every time we wake up…every day we live out our human lives we experience the Transfiguration in one way or another.  Sometimes it can happen right here at Church…we come here and experience a beautiful mass…we encounter God in the most incredible miracle of all time…the homily hits home…the music is uplifting…and we really feel God’s presence and we think as we walk out the doors that we have our problems all figured out.  And then within an hour sometimes someone stabs us with a dysfunctional comment or we stab someone with a dysfunctional comment and were back to the confusion and clouded vision we had before mass.

Clearly God does show us his brilliance…his perfection…his eternal presence.  It’s why we’re here today.  Every single time the priest holds up the consecrated host at this altar we experience the Transfiguration…every single time God shows himself in a human miracle…which by the way is more common than we even realize.  Look at something as basic as our own bodies. The confluence of cells…organs…tissue…bones…personalities…feelings…joys…emotions.  Talk about a miracle!  Our very bodies are Transfiguring proof that God knows what he’s doing.  And at the very same time God allows for un-brilliance in our sometimes sinful and confusing world.  Why else would there be hurricanes…earthquakes…car accidents…cancer…jealousy…backstabbing…racism…abortion…death penalty?

And that’s how you and I enter into this story with Peter, James, and John…three very human characters.  Peter…our first pope…brave Peter…Strong Peter…foolish Peter… denying Jesus three times…James and John…the Sons of Thunder…strong…confident…and obnoxious…more interested in who was going to sit at his right and his left then they were about serving others.  Here they are…these three totally average…probably uneducated…blue collar for sure…smelling of fish and sweat…these mostly broken characters on which our entire Church was built.  And they too were stuck in this contradiction…living literally between perfection and imperfection…in between the sinless one and their own human addiction to sin.
 
As the story goes on the message becomes even clearer.  Just like you and me when we experience a glimpse of perfection…they lose themselves in the miracle of the Transfiguration.  They become enamored in the splendor of the event.  Peter never wants to leave.  He realizes that he is experiencing perfection…the very thing that we as humans are hardwired to desire.  He even wants build three houses right there so they can stay forever in the magnificence of it all.  They must have had wives and children and responsibilities.  The moment was so good that they became incapable of considering their very average lives.
But as usual…Jesus in his wisdom pushes them back into the contradiction.  Instead of allowing them to stay there in the glory of the moment he sends them back down off the mountain…back down into the valley…back into their human contradiction…back down into their Lent.  They wanted to play church and Jesus sends them down to be Church.  And that’s what he’s saying to you and me today.  Stop playing church with one another and Be Church to one another. 

The Transfiguration is a foretaste of what is to come.  Jesus’ glimmering body is an example of what our bodies will be like when we are transfigured on the last day.  But the greater reality in the Transfiguration story is that He is showing Peter, James, & John and you and me that to be human…to be stuck in this contradiction between perfection and pain is quite normal.  This is where we are right now…it’s where we’re supposed to be right now.  And…as frustrating as it might be for all of us because this is where we all are…it might very well be just what we need at this time.  The Penance of this Contradiction is Lent.  We can’t stay on the mountain top.  We need to be right down here in the trenches…amidst the broken-ness of life.  Church happens in the beauty of a new baby and in the sadness of the death of a loved one…Church happens right there in falling in love for the first time and in the pain of an argument between husband and wife on the verge of divorce...Church happens in the joy of life’s plans coming together perfectly and the frustration of plans that never come to pass.  If everything were a Mountain Top experience…then there would be no need for penance or Lent.   God allows this contradiction in our lives so that we might be purified and made truly worthy to one day gaze upon is face for all of eternity.
    
The word Lent comes from Old English and means Spring.  But we know spring doesn’t happen over night because the word Lent also comes to us from the Italian word Lento which means slow.  Lent is a slow spring…an important time to prepare purposefully and slowly for the Transfiguration that will again happen at Easter and when we get to heaven.