(The Transfiguration of Jesus)
We read of the “mountaintop moment” experienced by Jesus and three of the disciples. This week’s scriptures reveal varied visible manifestations of God and “thin places” (in Celtic spirituality) where the veil between the holy and the ordinary is thin or lifted and earth and heaven seem to meet. The challenge is to be present in those thin place moments that are given to us. Here is one person's account of one.
The mountain I was standing on was completely surrounded by a plane of fluffy, corrugated clouds stretching dozens of kilometres off into the distance. Above and beyond was clear, but all below was obscured by the cloud that started about 5 meters or so beneath me. Standing on the edge of the precipice, I had no land reference points. It was as if I was standing on the clouds themselves, an angel in heaven. I watched the setting sun cast colors onto my clouds – pinks, then golds with purples out on the far edges. It was so beautiful I held my breath so as to capture the consummate peace of this exquisite moment.
There was no great voice, no burning bush, but internally something “clicked.” I had a deep sense, a fragment of awareness, that all before me had been created, and that this creation somehow accommodated me… I, what lay before me, and its creator, were part of the same entity. A warm feeling grew inside me, a knowing that I was enjoyed as much as I was enjoying the moment… I knew this moment had been very special. I had been touched by something that was much more than a great view. It was deeper and more encompassing than anything I had ever encountered.
~ Paul Hawker, from Secret Affairs of the Soul: Ordinary People’s Extraordinary Experiences of the Sacred (p.20)
We read of the “mountaintop moment” experienced by Jesus and three of the disciples. This week’s scriptures reveal varied visible manifestations of God and “thin places” (in Celtic spirituality) where the veil between the holy and the ordinary is thin or lifted and earth and heaven seem to meet. The challenge is to be present in those thin place moments that are given to us. Here is one person's account of one.
The mountain I was standing on was completely surrounded by a plane of fluffy, corrugated clouds stretching dozens of kilometres off into the distance. Above and beyond was clear, but all below was obscured by the cloud that started about 5 meters or so beneath me. Standing on the edge of the precipice, I had no land reference points. It was as if I was standing on the clouds themselves, an angel in heaven. I watched the setting sun cast colors onto my clouds – pinks, then golds with purples out on the far edges. It was so beautiful I held my breath so as to capture the consummate peace of this exquisite moment.
There was no great voice, no burning bush, but internally something “clicked.” I had a deep sense, a fragment of awareness, that all before me had been created, and that this creation somehow accommodated me… I, what lay before me, and its creator, were part of the same entity. A warm feeling grew inside me, a knowing that I was enjoyed as much as I was enjoying the moment… I knew this moment had been very special. I had been touched by something that was much more than a great view. It was deeper and more encompassing than anything I had ever encountered.
~ Paul Hawker, from Secret Affairs of the Soul: Ordinary People’s Extraordinary Experiences of the Sacred (p.20)
