After two and a half years spent with Jesus, walking along paths and villages, Jesus opens an opinion poll with his disciples: What do people say about me? The people’s opinion is exemplary about the Rabbi: You have the voice that opens my heart; you sound like many great prophets, a lover of God.
Jesus launches a second query, but he tightens the circle: But you, you from the abandoned boats, you from the paths with me, you friends whom I have chosen one by one, who am I to you? The strong-willed Jesus, though with a heart of Gold, wants to hear what the mouth whispers, but the heart screams.
Peter, James, and the others, including me, do we listen with open hearts to Jesus’ words? They’d say: You are my sweet healer, a Godly voice that rises; you are the Messiah with a shepherd’s voice that lifts and heals.
Jesus did not come to establish new forms of authority. Instead, he transformed the traditional power system by prioritizing service to others. He does not bring a chance of control but a possibility to become a transfiguring presence even in humanity’s bleakest, most impure, most altered experiences.
Entrusting us to do things that God alone knows how to do:
- Forgiving enemies.
- Transfiguring pain.
- Empathizing with one’s neighbor.
- Living life-given gestures that have eternity in them.
Such transfiguring power brings God into the world and the world into God. We become a small stone to build a portion of the new world.