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In Scripture, mountains are places of encounter with God. As such, they are also often places of incomprehension. We can only imagine the anguish behind Abraham’s answer to young Isaac’s innocent question about the missing lamb. Abraham did not know how God was going to resolve this quandary, but he knew that God was good and so he trusted.
In today’s Gospel, we find more confusion in the mountains. In the Transfiguration, Jesus’ divinity is revealed before the disciples in a way that does not clarify, but baffles. Poor Peter doesn’t know what to say. This perplexity is compounded when Jesus tells them to keep silent about their experience until after his resurrection. Like Abraham before them, the disciples have only a glimpse of God’s saving plan. They must trust God and wait for further understanding.
And what do we learn when we trust and wait? This mysterious God, who appears incredibly demanding, is in fact always providing. He seems to ask everything, but the goal of such asking is to open our hearts so that we can receive what he is offering. It’s not easy to believe that it is in giving that we receive. Paul applies the same phrase to God – who is for us, not against us – that Genesis uses for Abraham: he “did not withhold his own Son.” What am I withholding?