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After hundreds of years of performances, readings, and 8th grade recitations, Hamlet’s soliloquy continues to make a home in the contemporary consciousness. The monologue comes from Act III Scene 1 of the play.

The story of Hamlet begins in the ramparts of the castle Elsinor in Denmark. A ghost appears. Hamlet’s murdered father has returned to appeal to Hamlet to avenge his death at the hands of Hamlet’s uncle, who has married Hamlet’s mother.

Hamlet, still grieving the death of this father and the anger at his mother’s quick marriage to his uncle, is thrown beyond the horizon of his personal experience. He struggles with uncertainty when confronted with a reality that feels beyond his capacity to endure.

The famous soliloquy is an exercise in avoidance. Hamlet contemplates suicide, the last avoidance strategy of all.

To be, or not to be--that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to.

This month in our liturgy we are exploring what it means to sail beyond the horizon of our experience. In today’s Gospel Peter, James and John are confronted by a reality far beyond the horizon of their personal experience.

From the perspective of the disciples their experience on the Mount of Transfiguration may seem to be as far beyond the horizon as a person can go. But this is only preparation for a journey beyond an even more distant horizon. It is difficult to imagine a better description of the crucifixion of Jesus than: “The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks/ That flesh is heir to."

Those who know the play will remember that Shakespeare’s Hamlet sails beyond his horizon unprepared – with tragic results. But unlike the ghost in Shakespeare’s play, Jesus carefully prepares his disciples for progressive journeys beyond ever more distant horizons.

Jesus who prepared Peter, James and John, also works among us.