Last Sunday of Epiphany

LAST SUNDAY OF EPIPHANY

Last December Mary Frances and I put together signs for the Bazaar.  We connected the signs with hinges.  This Sunday is like that; I would call this a hinge Sunday, because it connects two seasons.  We are completing Christmas and Epiphany the season in which Christ unites with us and shows us what we can become.  And we begin Lent this week, the season in which Christ completes his work in us by his death and resurrection.  Today is a hinge that connects Epiphany and Christmas to Lent and Easter.  This Sunday is like a hinge joining the two seasons.

As always the readings for this Sunday are about transfiguration. Today let us put ourselves into the Gospel story—in our imagination let us become both witness and a characters  in the story.  And maybe we can gain insight into why the Church offers the transfiguration as the hinge between Christmas and lent.

Christ who walked from one of Galilee to the other wants to take a hike and he calls us to go with him.  Mm.  Fresh air and some exercise sounds good and we say yes, not knowing what we are in for.  Jesus our leader heads for a high mountain.  We struggle after him, realizing that we didn’t wear the right shoes and that we should have grabbed a goat skin of water.  The air gets thinner and there are times when we feel light headed and dizzy. But Jesus urges us on with high altitude cheer.  We think maybe this wasn’t the  right time to get to know our teacher better after all.  On we go till we reach the top and get ready to lie down in the shade of a big rock.  Then something strange and unexpected happens.  Jesus is bathed in dazzling light.