"Blessed the man whom God correcteth: refuse not the chastising of the lord: For he woundeth, and cureth: he striketh, and his hands heal." (Job 5:17-18)
“Chastising” is a great name for it. Jesus delivers a stinging rebuke to his own followers when he, for the first time, predicts for them both his own passion as well as theirs.
One moment things are going great for Jesus and his followers. Soaring popularity. Adoring crowds. Powerful miracles. Not the slightest hiccup to be seen anywhere. And then, the next moment—out of nowhere, as far as they can tell—Jesus blindsides them with “I am going to be killed and, if you really are my follower, you need to be ready to be killed, too” (cf. Luke 9:22-23).
It would be a healthy and a normal reaction to say, “No way. I’m out. You keep your suicide mission. Nice knowinya.” We see something like that from Simon who immediately takes Jesus aside to talk some sense into him.
The thing is, this news of complete dedication to the mission even unto death, should break upon us as a chastisement, the same as “Remember man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.” This rebuke which our Lord deals us should sting a bit. We’ve thought, perhaps, we were going to get off easy. But it’s clear now, we’re not.
Are we ready for what total commitment looks like? Are we ‘in’ or ‘out’?
There are only two ways out. On the one hand we could quit following our Lord. This can happen by our outright rejection of this plan. It can also happen by way of our own hypocrisy which would allow us for a while to maintain the illusion among our friends and family of being somewhat respectable Catholics. Once things finally get too uncomfortable for us, no one will blame us then for cutting and running. Then, at least, we’d have the cover of everybody else abandoning our Lord.
But, on the other hand, we could imitate the saints who understand well that the one who wounds us by reminding us of our mortality is the Lord. But he also cures us by giving to mortals the glory of immortality in the life to come. And since he is all-powerful we have the basis for our hope that he will also make something far more wonderful happen.
And he does. It’s called “the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). We’ll see that clearly on the day of the resurrection. But, for Peter James and John, since Jesus’ hadn’t yet died, he went ahead and arranged for them the vision of his Transfiguration.
It’s a kind of down-payment on the virtue of hope which will save Christians when the going gets tough for them. And it will get tough.