Tag: veil

The Father’s Beloved Son

The Father’s Beloved Son

This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.

Matthew 17: 5b

As Jesus revealed His divinity at the Transfiguration, the three disciples with Him heard the Father speak these words. In much the same way as He operates in our lives, the Lord didn’t give them perfect understanding of why they were chosen, what this revelation might mean, or how this was intended to sustain them through the suffering to come. Yet this mountaintop experience must have been held closely to the hearts of Peter, James, and John as they followed Jesus down the mountain and heard Him command them to tell no one at that time. This experience of Moses and Elijah alongside a bright cloud, the Father’s voice, and the veil of ordinariness being lifted from the person of Christ must have been quietly mused over by the disciples.

Did they look at Jesus a little differently? Did they wonder if He might again lower the veil and reveal His divinity to more people? Whatever specific questions they pondered, I am certain this experience was often in their thoughts as they followed Jesus.

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

In the moment, these words were likely easy to believe. They are on a mountain removed and the experience is all-encompassing, a dramatic sensation for all of the senses. This man who performed numerous miracles, spoke with wisdom and authority, and appeared driven and purposeful would be easy to see as one loved by God. Of course, they would listen to Him.

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Yet from this moment forward, Jesus walks toward the cross, enduring disdain and betrayal. In the agony in the garden, when Jesus asks for what is God’s will to be different than what is laid before Him, the disciples perhaps struggle to see Jesus as beloved or to recognize in this moment the Father’s pleasure. Jesus being arrested, handed over to the authorities, scourged, crowned with thorns: this is the love of the Father? The heavy cross laid upon His shoulders, the mocking and ridicule, the nails driven through His hands and feet: this is the Father’s pleasure?

As Jesus is hurriedly laid in the tomb after resting in His mother’s arms, it is a bleak and despairing moment for the disciples. Do Peter, James, or John even remember the Transfiguration in this moment? Do they hear the Father’s words, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him“? Do they wonder now how they can listen to the Father or the Son? Do they wonder if they even want to listen if this is what happens to God’s beloved?

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

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Veiled in the Ordinary

Veiled in the Ordinary

Things aren’t always as they seem to be.

The sacrifices we’d like to make aren’t always the ones we are offered.

The fruitfulness of our lives can’t always be seen exteriorly. In fact, we, the insiders of ourselves, cannot always see what is being borne from our lives. In the mundane, ordinary moments of our lives, there rests a significance that we cannot comprehend. Perhaps it is a gift that we cannot always see the weight of the moment and yet it seems necessary that sometimes we do see the particular importance of today, this specific moment, and the way it has a weight that goes beyond what we can presently feel.

The significance of Christmas resonates through the centuries. Yet two thousand years ago, something beautiful and ordinary took place. A child was born. While angels rejoiced, magi traveled, shepherds proclaimed, and a common stable was embraced in a heavenly glow, the momentous event was soon, once again, cloaked in the veil of the ordinary. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus didn’t float through life, walking on clouds or being obviously different from everyone else. Instead, Christ’s life is marked by instances of the veil being lifted, a glimpse given of the reality of underlying glory. Then, the veil is carefully drawn again and life continues with the same significance and yet appearing to be quite ordinary.

In our persistent seeking for the extraordinary moments, we often muddle through the ordinary. I can delight in hosting a meal and then get bogged down in the stress of bringing the details to life. I can be swept away by the ideal of home and then balk at the challenging opportunity to make it into a sanctuary. The veiled ordinary moments are what comprise the primary weight of our lives and yet it can be so burdensome to really enter into these moments, to trust in their necessity even while we are blind to their signficance.

When the glorious heavens changed back to a dark Bethlehem night sky, when the magi left their gifts and journeyed home by another way, and when the shepherds wandered back to their fields, what did the Holy Family do? While being critical lives in the unfolding of salvation, how did they wrestle with the uncertainty of their lives, the nighttime feedings and the unexpected flight for Christ’s life? Most of Our Lord’s life is shrouded in the secretive veil of the ordinary. He grows in age and wisdom is the offered summary of eighteen years of His life. The quiet of the quotidian wraps the Holy Family’s life in a gentle, secretive veil, like the inner lives of most families.

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