Transfiguration is the last Sunday in Epiphany and the final Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. In that way, it serves as a hinge, helping us turn from one season into the next. Mark highlights this juxtaposition by describing Jesus as dazzling white on a mountaintop and then immediately returning to the valley and the town below where he will heal a young boy possessed by a demon. Like Peter, in the midst of a mountaintop moment, we might think, “It is good for us to be here,” or “Let’s stay here.” Yet Jesus calls us to return to the valley and back into the ordinary. There, we can share the light we have seen and let it shine in the darkness. There, we can tell the words we have heard, “This is my Son, the beloved,” and help others feel loved and beloved. We are not meant to stay up on the mountaintop, for God needs us and the good news back in the valleys of life so as the saying goes, “What goes up, must come down.”
image: Greek Orthodox icon depicting Jesus’ transfiguration. Copyright © Universal Images/Superstock. Used by permission.