Fr Peter Helman

“As they were coming down the mountain, …” (Mark 9:9)
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Dear friends,

This past Saturday I went hiking with a group of Saint Philip’s youth along the Hamburg Trail in the Ramsey Canyon Preserve, near Sierra Vista. I’m not shy to admit so publicly that after several hours on a trail that never ceased to climb, I turned back a mile from the overlook. Happily, I wasn’t alone in the decision, so it felt more like honesty than defeat.

To my dismay, the descent was even more difficult and precarious than the climb. My legs were ready to resign and my knees most of all from the relentless clomp of every step. Back at the welcome center, I remembered the fourth verse of “Amazing Grace! how sweet the sound”: “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ‘tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”

On Sunday we read Saint Luke’s account of Jesus’ Transfiguration. Saints Peter, James, and John are with Jesus, high up a mountain, by themselves, to pray. And while he was praying, he was transfigured before them, "and the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white" (Luke 9:29). In our lectionary for Morning and Evening Prayer today we read Saint Mark’s version (Mark 9:2-13).

Neither Luke nor Mark suggests how hard the climb up must have been. The footpath wound in hairpin bends through evergreen oaks and rock clefts, up an island rising to heaven above the surrounding valley. Standing in the wind, they saw the countryside stretching out on every side far below with a vision of centuries and ancient peoples.

With all that Peter, James, and John witnessed on the mountain, it’s their descent from that place that strikes me today as the most difficult path because it posed to them a question of who they were and how to live considering the things they saw and heard. “A cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the beloved; listen to him” (Mark 9:7).

They were changed and filled with unexpected hope that they would find the world they had left behind for that moment changed too, utterly, and indeed they did find it shot through with new light, a veil pulled back from their eyes to see the power of God at work all around them.

To be true, though, it was the same world they left behind, a world of hunger and need, where to have faith is to persevere through every hardship and at times to admit we cannot climb any higher; when God is distant and our hearts are hollowed out; when we fail and fail again; and, what is more, when we doubt the power of God that anything will ever change.

Where are you today? Are you struggling to hold on? I’ve known that path, and as curious as it may sound, I believe it’s the most Christian experience of all, to struggle and fight for hope.

The part of the transfiguration account that I do my best in the most trying times to cling to is that Jesus walked with Peter, James, and John down the mountain back into the world. I wonder if they felt left alone in the descent when it was really only Jesus lagging behind trying to keep up with them, keeping watch over them.

The third verse from "Amazing grace!" also came to mind on the trail: "The Lord has promised good to me, his word my hope secures; he will my shield and portion be as long as life endures."

You're not alone.

Peace to you, Beloved~ 

Peter+