Today’s 18-minute message – on the transfiguration of Jesus Christ – locates this spectacular moment in a brief liminal space between Epiphany (and even before with the Annunciation and Jesus’ birth) and Lent, leading to Holy Week and Easter. This high point, which seems to last for only a few minutes, before Jesus leads his disciples back down the mountain and instructs them not to share the event with others, suggests that the mountain top is not the place for us to live, but rather one of those moments that strengthen us to deal with the ups and downs of life.

Mosaic in the Roman Catholic Church of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, Israel