February 22, 2009

From the Outside Looking In At High Flights

As a child, I loved getting up around 6:55 a.m. Saturday mornings, turning on the old Admiral TV (Back in those days, it took 20 seconds or so to warm up), while the Test pattern was still on. And then, it appeared! A majestic sweep of orchestral music was followed by a plane soaring high through the clouds, and then the following words lifted me from my floor seat in front of that black box into an other-worldly realm:

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long, delirious burning blue I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or ever eagle flew — And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God. (by John Magee)

One day Jesus took Peter, James and John with him on a mountain. In front of their own eyes, Jesus was transfigured and they saw him engaging in conversation with Moses and Elijah. Talk about a high flight!

The word, “transfigured comes from a familiar Greek word that is known to us: “metamorphosis.” It means to completely change or transform such as a cocoon transforms into a butterfly or a daffodil bulb morphs into a glorious tulip blossom.

But then as now, there are no true words to make sense of such high flights, of thin places where heaven and earth meet. Peter wanted to capture its essence by building three booths for Jesus, Moses and Elijah; Nineteen year old poet John Magee attempted the same after flying at 30,000 feet on a test flight of a newer model of the Spitfire V in 1941 in Canada.

But one thing they shared in common: On that mountain and soaring in that plane’s high flight, Peter, James and John, and John Magee touched the veil between earth and heaven and found it to be gossamer thin, as they stood in the presence of transcendence.