Graduation ceremonies are a big deal. The graduates are lauded for completing their course of work, for meeting all the requirements, for formally finishing what they had started so long ago. On graduation day all attention is focused on the graduates, celebrating their special moment. But the next morning…time to go back to everyday life. Graduation day does mark a new beginning. But for a while, at least, that new beginning might look like same old, same old. Sometimes new beginnings look like nothing has really changed.

In today’s gospel text a momentous event, a true mountaintop experience, is revealed. Yet after that monumental “transfiguration” Jesus and his three chosen disciples go back down the mountain as if nothing had happened. In fact, Jesus returns to his mission, cautioning…