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The Tent. “Daddy, can you make a tent for me again,” my beloved 4-year-old son Scott asked me yesterday. What I, as a kid, called a pillow and blanket fort, Scott calls a tent. “Yes, Scott I can make a tent for you,” I told him. So, last night, I made a tent for Scott.
Today, the tent plays a central role in understanding the Gospel reading of Jesus’ transfiguration, which we just heard. First, a little bit of backstory on the tent may be helpful. As Jesus, Peter, James, and John were walking up Mount Tabor, the tent was likely on their minds. The tent after all played a central role in the mountaintop experiences of their Jewish roots.
When Moses, for example, went up to Mount Sinai with three of his closest co-workers, the others would have had their own tents, but Moses had a special tent called the tent of meeting that he setup for God to meet his chosen people. This tent on the mountaintop is the place where God’s chosen people would go up and God would come down to meet.
The glory of God Moses encountered was described as a devouring fire because its light was so intense. While Moses was in the tent, so as to not devour him, God would cover Moses with his hand so Moses would not see the face of God and then God in his glory would pass by Moses and Moses would see God’s back.
This was Moses’ experience in the tent for 40 days. Forty by the way, is the number in the Bible that represents transformation, new growth, and new life. Think of the 40 days of rain Noah experienced with the flood, Elijah fasting on Mount Horab for 40 days, etc. Now, back to Moses on the mountaintop. After 40 days on Mount Sinai, Moses, came out of the tent and went down the mountain with the Ten Commandments in his hands and the skin of his face was shining after being in God’s glorious presence.
Flashforward about 1,400 years to Peter, James, and John on the mountaintop as they see Jesus’ face shining like the sun as he is transfigured before them talking with Moses and Elijah.
Then, while Peter is talking about building three tents, one tent for Jesus, a second tent for Moses, and a third tent for Elijah, a bright cloud comes and we hear God the Father speak at what is only the second occasion in the New Testament we get to hear him speak and he says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” These words from God the Father are very similar to the words God the Father spoke claiming Jesus as his beloved son at his baptism.
God the Father’s words to Jesus claiming him as his beloved child should sound very familiar to all of us who were baptized. When we were baptized, God claimed us as his beloved child as well. In our baptism, we also received Jesus as our brother. This is the son who has become the servant so as to take servants like us and transform us into people who share in his own divine sonship.
The transfiguration of Jesus gives us a window into seeing the work of transfiguration Jesus wants to do in our lives. The glory we see in Jesus is pointing to the great work Jesus wants to do in our lives. God wants to transfigure each of us to share in his glory.
We have the opportunity not just to reflect the glory of God like Moses, but we have the opportunity to have the glory of God shine through us when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist and have him inside us. He wants us to share his glory with us and through us. At every Mass, we too are meant to be transfigured to be more like Jesus. Jesus wants to transform the sinfulness of our broken humanity into his glory to radiate his glory throughout the world.
When the Gospel says that Jesus was transfigured, it means that Jesus went beyond the form that he had. During the Eucharistic Prayer, when the host is elevated, we disciples are looking at the Body of Christ that has gone beyond what Jesus’ body looked like when he walked the earth. When we look at the Eucharist, we are meant to look beyond the ordinary appearance of bread to see the extraordinary presence of Jesus.
When the bread is consecrated, it is made sacred and holy becoming the body of Christ. The consecration that happens here is meant to extend beyond what appears to us as a piece of bread. Christ’s action at this altar is not meant to be limited to consecrating just what appears to us as a piece of bread. The further effects of Christ’s action at the altar are meant to consecrate the whole mystical Body of Christ. This is how the Body of Christ is fully glorified and transfigured, moving the Body of Christ beyond the form it had before.
In the moment of consecration or the moment that takes what was just ordinary bread and makes it becomes sacred and holy by becoming the body of Christ, Jesus’ intends to consecrate or make holy not just what appears to us as a piece of bread, but also, Jesus intends to consecrate or make holy all of us who receive the Body of Christ. An even further effect of the consecration that takes place at this altar today is that all those who we encounter are intended to be consecrated and made holy as well.
This consecration ripple effect of Jesus is set into motion today the moment Fr. Jeremy extends his hands over the bread and wine asking the Father to send the Holy Spirit to sanctify the gifts. This consecration ripple effect is meant to move all those who have been touched by the waters of baptism and have been claimed by God as God’s beloved child. What begins as a small ripple in the middle of the ocean can turn into a large wave as it approaches the dry shore.
The same is true for each of us beloved sons and daughters of God who are called to be the ones that extend this consecration ripple effect of the waters of baptism like waves that touch what was dry shore and make it dry no more.
Then, like a receding wave that contracts back into the water from which it came bringing with it some of what was once dry land back into the water, we are meant to bring those newly baptized back into this tent to be strengthened by Jesus in the Eucharist and be sent back out.
This cycle of further expansion and contraction is meant to continue until the whole face of the earth, even those standing on the highest mountaintop, have been covered by the saving waters of baptism, which Jesus consecrated at his own baptism. This is the way every person created in the image and likeness of God can hear God call them his beloved child just as Jesus heard at his baptism and heard again at his transfiguration.
We must be prepared to do Jesus’ work of consecration and transformation. So, in this moment before receiving the Eucharist, let each of us ask Jesus to help prepare us for doing his work: Jesus, as I open my mouth to consume you, I open my heart so you may consume my heart. So that you may transform my heart to make it your heart.
Jesus, transform my feet to make them your feet to walk down into the valley to encounter your chosen people so I may lead them up to the mountaintop. Jesus, transform my hands to make them your hands so they may reach out and touch your chosen people to let them know they should rise and be not afraid. Jesus, transform my face to make it your shining face so that all those I encounter may see you in all your glory. Jesus, transform my eyes to make them your eyes so that in the face of all those I encounter today, I may see your glorious shining face.
In the transfiguration, Peter, James, and John got to see the divinity beyond the humanity of Jesus. All those we encounter today are meant to see the divinity beyond the humanity of each of us. May all that we do and say today be all about building up Jesus’ kingdom and his tent.
The tent Jesus wants is a tent that is large enough to cover all his kingdom and all those who were created in God’s image and likeness and who have been consecrated by him. So, in the end, what my beloved son Scott wants is the same thing that Jesus wants, a really big tent.