Ask Jesus – Saturday, 2nd Week of Advent/Sirach48:1-4,9-11b/Matthew 17:10-13

“And the disciples asked him…..”

Taking things to the Lord is a great way to clarify your faith doubts. Today, when in doubt, we simply ‘google it.’ While our smart phones may give us smart answers, they may not give us the answer we need for our soul. Google answers the matters of the mind, the Lord answers the matters of the heart. Google is impersonal the Lord simply IS.

Taking our questions to the Lord may not always give us the answers we want to hear but will certainly give us the direction we need to move towards or the areas we need to look at. There was movement in this Gospel text; a journey had just begun. This was a journey that had filled their sight and left them in wonder and now they needed a deeper insight.

Jesus had been transfigured in the presence of Peter, James and John. Moses and Elijah had appeared and were talking to Jesus. If only the disciples knew what they were in for, they would have come prepared; after all, realizing how unprepared they were for this, the greatest and most historic summit of Judaism’s heavyweights had just taken place. Peter feels compelled to respond to this unplanned program; he desires to build three tents. Comfort and convenience is perhaps what he hoped to bring to this meeting or perhaps as some suggest, this for Peter was a moment he wished would last forever.

The voice from heaven was not an indication as much as it was instruction. “This is my son, the beloved in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” Ironically if you read the Gospels, the disciples failed to even do this. But the apparition of the transfiguration and the instruction to listen to him was not lost on his disciples who were plagued several times with doubts as to the identity of Jesus.