Visiting the holy land right before the global pandemic will be one of the greatest memories of my life. Journeying to the land of Jesus acts like the fifth gospel. The scriptures hit with greater awareness through my senses and when I read a passage like today I can engage the sounds and feelings of once being on Mount Tabor.

In Luke’s account of the Transfiguration, the text tells us,

a cloud came and cast a shadow over them,
and they became frightened when they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said,“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

The cloud is a reminder of the Shekinah, the divine presence of God that accompanied Moses and his people through the desert. Today’s Gospel tells us that Peter, James, and John had to enter the cloud to hear the Father’s voice.

Often in the spiritual life, we stay outside the Shekinah. Pray is fast and superficial, keeping God at the far distance. God becomes the great wish maker. Yet, today’s text is the invitation to enter into God.

We must walk into the Shekinah through an intentional life of prayer. We are never apart from God’s presence. God’s love holds all existence together, therefore, we are always in God’s loving presence. To live an intentional life of prayer moves us to recognize with all our senses that loving presence that calls his Son the beloved. It is recognizing that God looks at us and from deep within call us his beloved.