Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 341

Immediately on seeing him,
the whole crowd was utterly amazed.
They ran up to him and greeted him.

 A fter his exhilarating transformation, upon returning to his disciples and finding them engaged in fruitless attempts to exorcise a boy, Jesus suffered a kind of hard landing. We hear his disappointment in his remark: “O faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you?"

It's not unlike the letdown we feel as we move from the Book of Wisdom's exalted reflection on Wisdom. We have had a vision of...

The sand of the seashore, the drops of rain, the days of eternity: who can number these?

Heaven's height, earth's breadth,

the depths of the abyss: who can explore these?

Before all things else wisdom was created;

and prudent understanding, from eternity.

The Lord's experience of Mount Tabor was exhilarating and deeply encouraging. His face was still shining as Moses was shining when he descended from Sinai. 

As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he spoke with the LORD. When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him. (Exodus 34:29-30)

Like the amazed Hebrews, when  Jesus reappeared, the "whole crowd was amazed" But "immediately," Saint Mark greets us with quarreling disciples, a distressed crowd of people, and a troubled man with his demon-possessed child. There is no time for savoring and sharing the delight of Mount Tabor with the other disciples. But Peter, James, and John have been silenced by the Lord's command, and after the commotion at the bottom of the hill, might have forgotten all about it. 

But we must not. We have already, in Mark 8, declared our belief that Jesus is the Messiah. But given what we have seen and heard -- his Transformation and God's declaration, "This is Beloved Son. Listen to him." -- we have yet to learn what it all means for us. Knowing these things cannot be a useless memento placed on a shelf and dusted periodically. Okay, I have seen the Lord -- the Messiah and Son of God -- what difference does it make to me?

For one, I will drive out demons. I have never been able to do so, neither by shouting, arguing, or persuading with all my strength and will. I can't even win an argument that makes any difference. Nobody really cares what I think, opine, or believe. Nor can I speak with authority of what I have seen. As the three disciples were not permitted to speak of what they had seen on the mountaintop, so is our knowledge of the Lord's resurrection useless information until something else happens. 

We must hear more, and it comes in verses 34-35

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.

The Gospel demands more than sincerity, that sweetly sophomoric virtue. It requires our whole life.