Exodus
In fifth-century Ireland, when Christian monasticism began to take root, the Country was divided into small kingdoms, with a legal system known as the Brehon Law. Society was hierarchical within each ‘tuath’ (pronounced ‘tua’), as they were known, governed by a king. If a person moved from one tuath to another, to marry for example, they generally assumed a lower rank in the hierarchy to the position they came from. One exception to this was for the poets. They enjoyed had a high rank wherever they were. The king always wanted to appease the poets, as the power of his pen could be strong. The monks seeking a solitary life tended to move to another tuath, seeking a humbler position. But in time, due to their wisdom, they became as important to a king as the poets. Thus, moving to another tuath was no longer an act of humility. As a result, monks left Ireland altogether in their droves to pursue a more ascetical life. They sought a life where they had to trust in Divine Providence completely. The Biblical text that inspired them was that of the call of Abram: “The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to a land that I will show you.” Abram came to the ‘Promised Land’ the land of Canaan. Thus, the perigrinus, the Irish pilgrim monk, came to be. Trusting in Divine Providence, the monk undertook an ‘exodus’, an extreme ascetic way of life, seeking a promised land, to become more united to the Lord in the kingdom of Heaven.
Elsewhere in the Scriptures there occurs an ‘exodus’. Jacob and his sons left the land of Canaan for Egypt, where the Israelites then took root and grew. Centuries later the Lord called them out of the land of Egypt, to return to the ‘Promised Land’ of Canaan, the land of their forefathers. Today we hear how Jesus prepares His disciples for His own exodus and also for theirs
Towards the centre of each of the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we read of the episode of the Transfiguration. It is a focal point for each. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain apart from the others. Mountains in the Scriptures symbolize a meeting point between God and man. Jesus, the Son of God, is transfigured before them. His Divine Nature shines through his body so that his face shone like the sun and his garments became white as light. Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke to Him. St Luke tells us that they spoke to Jesus of “His departure (Greek word: ‘ἔξοδον’), which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem”. A bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.”
We still have the OT, the writings of the Law and the Prophets, which Moses and Elijah represent. But something greater is happening here, towards which the OT authors all point towards, namely to Jesus, the Son of God and His teachings. For He came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them. Prior to this episode, but after Peter’s confession of faith in Him as the Son of the living God, Jesus told His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things. This they could not understand. In order to strengthen them in their faith and to reaffirm them in the truth of Peter’s confession, He is transfigured before them. The suffering servant prophesied by Isaiah, the servant who “had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” is now transfigured before them with the radiant Beauty of Divine Light. The episode occurs in order to strengthen the disciples for the difficult journey ahead of them so that they would not lose faith in Him. It points to the Paschal Mystery, Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. Filled with awe, the disciples fall on their faces to the ground. How natural it was for Jesus, rendered in His ordinary aspect, when He touches the disciples to raise them up!
The Transfiguration points beyond the Resurrection of Jesus to Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit among the disciples. We too have received the Holy Spirit to empower us along our faith journey, our exodus from this life towards the Heavenly Jerusalem. St John Henry Newman wrote that God “made history to be doctrine”. New-born in the Holy Spirit, the God of Mercies is revealed to us and is impressed upon us. Following the footsteps of Jesus and Mary, the “Woman clothed with the Sun”, we journey with them, in the Holy Spirit, along our exodus to the Promised Land of Heaven. Newman continues that with the “Heavenly Fathers image impressed upon us, which we lost when Adam fell”, the Holy Spirit “disposes us to seek His Presence by the very instinct of our new nature.”
No more perfected is this than with the Virgin Mary, the ‘Stella Matutina;, ‘Morning Star’. Through the grandeur of her divine motherhood, she touches on the infinite, both in her earthly life and in Heaven. But she too suffered the sword that pierced her Immaculate Heart, most especially when she stood beneath the ross of her Divine Son. Our ‘exodus’ too involves a suffering and death to lead us, in hope to our resurrection. Jesus came to take away our sins, not our trials and sufferings for the purification of our spiritual sight.
The following lines of Newman were written under a picture of the Heart of Mary:
Holy the womb that bare Him,
Holy the breasts that fed,
But holier still the Royal Heart
That in His Passion bled.