The Communities of New Skete

Scripture Reading: Mal2:5-7, 3:20-24; Acts 13:25-41; Mk 9:2-13

Reflections from a Monk

Many of you may have heard the expression: Film noir. Now I’m not much of a film person but that expression always brings to mind the image of a detective film, often shot in black and white with most of the scenes dark and foggy. The action takes place in the shadows with shafts of light cutting through the darkness. When the hero is finally at the point of questioning the prime suspect it usually happens in a dark and dingy room with a flood light shooting straight into the suspect’s eyes as he is being interrogated. The detective hammers away with questions and the suspect finally breaks. This is the moment when the person finally sees the light and owns the truth. “Throwing light on the subject” and “seeing the light” are familiar phrases in our language and light is a common image in scripture. We also speak of being “enlightened” when we learn something new, especially when it comes to us as a truth we had not previously understood. In the New Testament the Feast of Transfiguration is a prime example of where seeing the light and encountering the truth about Jesus Christ come together.

The apostles Peter, James and John are witnesses to the Transfiguration of Christ, but do they really “see the light,” that is, do they understand the truth that is being revealed to them? Scripture tells us that the apostles are not able to fully understand who Jesus Christ is until after his death and resurrection. Then as they review their lived experiences with Jesus they begin to understand. So, too, we may have to live with the effect of the light for a while before we see the truth.

The event that we know as the Transfiguration of Christ happened at a particular point in time, but the meaning and the impact of that transfiguration touches each of us at different times, just as it took time for the apostles to absorb its meaning. Even though Peter, James and John were eyewitnesses to the event, they did not “get it” until later. But something was going on inside them from that moment on. And this is one of the miracles of the transfiguration. Externals may be unchanged even as interior change begins to ferment.

Our pilgrimage theme: Healing : New Life in Christ, connects directly to Transfiguration. One might say healing, like the Transfiguration experience, is about interior change and not necessarily about physical change. Jesus went up the mountain with Peter, James and John and he was transfigured before their eyes. They were literally bowled over. But after the cloud lifted and Moses and Elijah vanished, what remained was what had been there from the beginning: Peter, James and John on the mountain with Jesus. Their physical reality had not changed. Their interior reality, however, had begun to be transformed and would continue to grow and mature. Similarly with healing, the healing comes through an interior realization of how to live in God’s presence with whatever brokenness we bear and know that God is with us in this and that it will be ok. Our journey is not interrupted rather it is transformed (transfigured) in ways that bring us nearer to our destination even though the evolution of our physical reality will be what it must be.

Over these last months we in this community have lived with the process of our Sister Katrina dying. One might ask how can we experience healing even as we witness or experience dying? Sr. Katrina has shown us how by the way she has approached her own struggle with pancreatic cancer. Through prayer and personal meditation as well as in consultation with a spiritual director, confiding in her monastic sisters and brothers and communicating with family and friends, she has come to a place of peace with this stage of her journey. Her faith strengthened as she put her life and destiny fully in God’s hands. As her own capacity diminished she has accepted gracefully the help that her Sisters, caregivers, family and friends extended to her. And by doing so, she has given to all of us the gift of her own healing. Christ said, “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you” (Jn 14:27) and Sr. Katrina has done the same. Likewise, on the mountain, it was Christ who was Transfigured, the three apostles were only witnesses and yet they were touched and transformed by that experience and ultimately grew into a greater and greater awareness of who Christ was and how he was infusing their lives with a holiness that they had never experienced before. Their experience can also be ours. We may not immediately see the light and yet we can always strive, as has Sr. Katrina, to be open to God’s healing presence in our lives.

Today you will hear several presentations that will shed more light on our Christian understanding of healing. We will also enter into the healing presence of Christ during our Healing Service. We hope this day will illuminate the reality of healing and will help us recognize and appreciate the experience of healing – not only in ourselves but in and through others.

Christ is in our midst!

Scripture Reading: 1 Kg. 19:9-14a; 2 Pet. 1:10-18; Mt. 17:1-8

Reflections from a Monk

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen!

Back in the 1950’s and ‘60’s a great cartoon character named Pogo had a great line: “We have seen the enemy—and it is us!” Now to turn this on its head, today we have seen the Light—and it is us!—Each of us and all of us together in the body of Christ reflect the brightness of Christ who is our head, as St. Paul might say. Today three disciples witnessed the complete transformation of Jesus’ appearance. And later they lived through his passion and death and resurrection and now tell us about it. Also today the apostle Peter gives us his last will and testament in which he remembers and encourages us by this event. Later he exclaims that “We look forward to new heavens and a new earth, as he promised, where the upright will be at home!”

But how did people in those days, who knew the Jewish Bible, understand this story? There was Peter, along with James and John, on Tabor, like Moses on Sinai, experiencing an incredible revelation, not in a burning bush but in the blinding light of a person, and also hearing the voice of God. But now the divine voice confirms what was heard at the Baptism in the Jordan: “You are my Son, the beloved. Hear him.” Moses was again seen here, too, along with Elijah, both of whom had heard the voice of God before, and who together represent the Torah and the great prophets of Israel. And now they stand in conversation with Christ, the author of the new law and a new prophecy or witness to the infinite love of God. As Peter had said earlier, “You are the Messiah!” And later in his epistle, “Christ is our Lord and Saviour!” (—the first time this phrase is used in the New Testament.)

This is not just an experience of Jesus’ noble glory or special holiness, a glimpse of enlightenment and fellowship: no, this event shows the meaning of who we are, where we are from, and where we are going—in spite of and beneath all the suffering, sorrow, and sighing of life in the world below that mountain.

We are urged to live by this vision of transformation, to recognize even in ourselves the divine power and divine acceptance and divine kindness. Christ is shown as he really is, and in his body includes us and humanity and every living creature and the earth itself. This prepares the disciples for the death and resurrection of Jesus, but it also encourages each and every single one of us. It gives balance to the burdens of suffering, hostility, and death, by exposing love, rising, and grace as the essence of our life.

The biblical prophet Jeremiah says that in the kingdom of God the just, the upright, will shine like the sun for all to see and feel. St. Paul says that in the final reckoning every one of us will see Christ clearly as, and we will be like him and reflect his light ourselves, because through faith we are considered just in the eyes of God.

You know, this is not an uplifting summer story to hold us until the Christmas story comes around next winter! Here is a crucial new way of looking at things, and the only way to transform ourselves and the world. We know the hymn: “We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly Spirit, and we have found the true faith.” We have been enlightened at baptism; we have been confirmed through the gospels, we have found the source of life, we have been healed and made whole in the depths of our being. It is in there! Is this our daily way of thinking?

Where can we see evidence of this transfiguring light? We look up at the saints that surround us, who encourage us even in these anxious times. These people have shown how to come to true self-knowledge and full possession of ourselves and our unruly ego-natures.

They portray a beauty of soul and vision not only immortal and holy but fragile — redeeming yet elusive. They became free and deeply compassionate in the midst of weakness and sickness, or greed, hatred, delusion, wrong-doing, and shame. As Jesus said, “Take courage!” “Do not be afraid! I am with you always!”

Yet, it is so hard for many to accept what is beautiful and good in us. That’s not the image we first have of ourselves, full of secret wounds, shame, and lack of confidence, and at times wondering why we exist. A dark vision controls us even without our knowing, and hijacks our good intentions. On top of this, out there is the need for protection from people who are unstable, controlling, dangerous, and deluded.

Yet beneath the armor of self-protection, there is the inherent original beauty of our nature created by God, who said “It is good!” An ancient and hallowed Eastern text was written to guide those who are dying, and it clearly says it: “You are of noble birth; you come from glory; remember your shining true nature, the essence of your soul: Trust it, return to it, for it is your home.”

People can see and feel and taste it when they visit a monastery. Love and deep respect for ourselves and others will show in any of us when we remove the weeds that choke it out, those miserable thoughts and obsessions, those bad habits and thoughtless ways of acting that we have. This is the way we can transform and change our own lives and inspire each other to become whole and joyful: the world is hungry for simple acceptance, compassion, and truth. As my mother once said, “I love you just as you are: but can you try to remember to do what I am asking here…?”

The monk Thomas Merton wrote, “Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in the eyes of the Divine. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed.” Then finally he exclaims: “…I suppose the big problem would be that we would all fall down and worship each other!”

Christ is in our midst!