Archdiocese Of St. Louis

This past summer I went on my first overnight camping trip. A bunch of my friends loaded into a car and we headed for the Virginia mountainside. As we started putting things together for our tent. I was reminded of one of the passages from the Transfiguration that always perplexed me. Jesus and a few of his closest disciples walk up a mountain. While in the heights alone with the Lord, Jesus is transfigured before them revealing all His glory. Peter—I imagine—not sure of what to say, asks Jesus if he should set up three tents for those present. Tents were temples and tabernacles in the Old Testament which makes it seems as though, Peter deeply desired to stay—to dwell—in a tent alone with Jesus on a high mountain. However, what Peter was about to understand is: he already had what we wait for in expectation during Advent. In Advent we await the word made flesh that will dwell among us, that will be “tabernacled” among us. With today’s image being an empty tent, I wonder if Peter’s words could stir a d