Fr. Campbell, "God’s Holy Mountain"
We
meet Jesus today gloriously transfigured on the holy mountain, said to
be Mount Tabor, conversing with Moses and Elias about His coming
sufferings, in the presence of His apostles, Peter, James, and John. God
had spoken from the cloud at Mount Sinai. Here at Mount Tabor He would
affirm the authority of His divine Son, the new Moses: “This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him.”
Jesus
often went up into the hills and mountaintops to pray. Soon after this
incident He would pray on Mount Olivet the night before He suffered,
“Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will
but thine be done” (Lk.22:42). And on Mount Calvary He would sacrifice
His life for the sins of the world.
In
praying on the hills and mountains, Jesus was following a
long-established tradition. The ancients believed that they were closer
to God on the hills and mountains. There they went to offer sacrifice,
and there they built their temples.
Abraham,
called by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac, set up an altar for the
sacrifice on Mount Moriah. God, of course, only testing Abraham’s
obedience, provided a lamb for the sacrifice.
Moses
encountered God in the burning bush on Mount Sinai. There he received
from God the Ten Commandments, and announced the covenant between God
and His chosen people.
Elias,
whose name is associated with Mount Carmel, walked for forty days and
forty nights on the strength of food provided by and angel, to converse
with God on Mount Horeb, which St. Jerome believed was Mount Sinai.
The
official place of worship for the Hebrews was established when King
David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and placed it in a
tent on Mount Sion. Later, his son, Solomon built the Temple there.
Some
of the most beautiful psalms, such as Psalm 83 (84), expressed the
desire of the people of God for His dwelling place on Mount Sion, which
the Church sees as symbolic of the longing of the soul for the courts of
heaven:
“How
lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul yearns and
pines for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the
living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest in
which she puts her young – your altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my
God!” (Ps.83:1-4).
Mount
Sion, however, was not to be the permanent site of God’s holy Temple.
Jesus had already remarked to the woman at the well in Samaria: “Woman,
believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain (Mount
Gerizim) nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what
you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the
Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers
will worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (Jn.4:21-23).
The
true Temple, as Jesus Himself affirmed (Jn.2:19) would henceforth be
the Body of Christ, the presence of which on earth is the holy Catholic
Church, the new Mount Sion, the spiritual Jerusalem. The true act of
worship would henceforth be offered “through him, with him, in him,” in
the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The true worshippers would be those who
would believe in Jesus as their Messiah and Lord, those signed with the
seal of the Triune God through baptism, and fed with “living Bread” at
the altar of the Lord.
We
find Jesus once more, transfigured and glorious, clothed in the
resplendent garment of the Traditional Latin Mass, which Fr. Faber
called “the most beautiful thing this side of heaven.” Many today fail
to see Him in the poor rags of the “novus ordo” rite, and are wandering
in the darkness without hope. We pray for them, and for all who yearn in
their hearts for the courts of the Lord.
But indeed, as St. Paul says, admonishing us not to be like the unbelievers:
“There
remains therefore a Sabbath Rest for the people of God. For he who has
entered into his Rest, has himself also rested from his own works, even
as God did from his. Let us therefore hasten to enter into that Rest,
lest anyone fall by following the same example of unbelief”
(Heb.4:9-11).
We
have many “examples of unbelief” in these days, when we can’t even look
to a Holy Father who keeps the Faith of the Church and guides us safely
to the Sabbath Rest of Heaven. May God soon restore the papacy and
provide safe guidance for us once more. In the meantime, we keep the
“Faith of Our Fathers” handed down to us from the beginning. We dare not
follow where Francis leads, as our Lord warns us:
“Every
plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let
them alone; they are blind guides of blind men. But if a blind man guide
a blind man, both fall into a pit” (Mt.15:13,14).
In
the presence of the living God and His divine Son, our glorious Lord,
let us be filled with the holy fear and the firm faith of Peter, James
and John, as we pray these words from the Act of Faith,
“O
my God! I firmly believe… these and all the truths which the Holy
Catholic Church believes and teaches, because Thou hast revealed them,
Who canst neither deceive nor be deceived. Amen.”
