Mountains do seem panacean sites where one could stay insular to the wounds of life and oblivious to the sufferings of the world, don’t they? Therefore we try our best to spiritually valorize them through some sanctimonious hermeneutics.
What’s the point of life then if all we seek are just ways to circumvent pain at the expense of being absolutely apathetic to the afflictions of the world, the very world for the sake of which Christ took flesh and was crucified? Rabbi Harold S. Kushner writes;
“Pain is the price we pay for being alive. Dead cells—our hair, our fingernails—can’t feel pain; they cannot feel anything. When we understand that, our question will change from, “Why do we have to feel pain?” to “What do we do with our pain so that it becomes meaningful and not just pointless empty suffering?”
Captivated by the dazzling glory of Christ on the mountain of Tabor one is very much tempted – like Peter (Matt. 17:4) – to ascend the mountain, construct tabernacles and stay there permanently only to be chided by Christ to descend. Little do we realize that the pathway to that triumphant glory needs to be drenched by our blood on the Cross; the Glory of Christ is indispensably preceded by His Passion and so is ours.
The truth is we are more comfortable with a God-in-Tabernacle than a God-in-Flesh. In fact we are so intimated by God-in-Flesh that we try to squeeze Him back into a tabernacle and place Him at a safe distance promising to visit Him once a week to pay our obeisance. Disconcertingly this is the level to which Christian faith appears to have stooped to. Christ calls us to freedom but we are inebriated in our servitude.
Golgotha is just as glorious as Tabor even though the glory isn’t apparent but right from the Garden of Eden we have a legacy of falling prey to what is appealing to our senses.
Blessed Feast!
~ 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐨 𝐅𝐫. 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐥
Urho, The Way 