The Feast of Transfiguration
Dn 7:9-10, 13-14; 2 Pt 1:16-19; Mt 17:1-9
Transfiguration
is an Invitation to all of us to be Transfigured
Beloved
in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of Jesus’ Transfiguration. In the
Catholic Church, we do not just celebrate feast days as a way of recalling some
events in the life of Jesus or the saints and give thanks to God for how great
they were. No! In addition to giving thanks to God, we also celebrate in order
to become what we celebrate. Thus, today’s celebration of the Transfiguration
is an invitation to all of us to be transfigured, i.e to move from a state of
despair to a state of hope; to dare to listen to God even when humanly speaking
it might not make sense to do so.
Beloved,
this week I received a beautiful email from a couple that I was privileged to
walk with through one of the most difficult moments in their marriage. One sentence
in the email almost brought tears to my eyes. It read: “Father, we have come to
realize that God is faithful and that he is always up to something good.” I got
to know this couple ten years ago. The woman was Christian but the husband did
not believe in God even though he had been baptized as a child. After two years
of happy married life, things started going wrong. The husband lost his job,
got depressed, started drinking heavily, and began withdrawing from his wife
and two children. The wife cried and prayed but the situation only seemed to
get worse. As if these problems were not enough, the wife found out that her
husband was having a child with another woman. The wife decided she could not
do it any longer and asked for divorce. One the day she was to sign the papers,
she decided to go into the chapel, pray before the blessed sacrament and then
sign. As she was praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament she heard a voice
“Don’t do it! Forgive him! Carry his sufferings with him.” With tears in her
eyes, she went back home and told the husband I forgive you! Those words turned
the husband’s life around. He apologized to his wife. After five years of
working through these challenges together as a couple, the husband stopped all
the affairs, stopped drinking, got baptized and is now a deacon in the church. He
and the wife accepted the new baby and he is living with them now. See what God
can do when we don’t give up hope?
My
Dear Sisters and Brothers, the power of God to transfigure us, if we listen to
him, is what our scriptural readings today attest to. In the first reading,
Daniel talks about a vision he had during the reign of King Belshazzar of
Babylon when God’s chosen people, the Jews, were undergoing so much persecution
and suffering. In that vision God prophesies to his people that no matter how
long it takes and how bad things get, God will bring new life to those who
listen to the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.
St.
Peter in the second reading tells us that this prophecy is not a myth because he
has experienced it and can attest to the fact that, even though life can be
cruel and painful at times, those who hold on to their faith in Christ and
listen to him will find new life even in times of suffering.
In the
gospel, Jesus was about to undergo his Suffering and Death on the Cross; and he
knew this was going to be tough for the disciples because none of the disciples
had thought that following Jesus would entail this much suffering. Remember
that when Jesus told the disciples that he had to suffer and die and that the
disciples would have to go through suffering in order to help save the world,
Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked him (Mt 16) and said, God forbid this
suffering. Peter was thinking: should I really do this? This is not the kind of
Messiah I had hoped for. That is why when he found an escape from the suffering
of the world on Mt. Tabor, he wanted to build a tent and just stay there; but
Jesus told him no Peter you don’t save your loved ones by running away from
suffering but rather by sacrificing for their sake and walking with them
through the pains of life. Like Peter, the other disciples had their own doubt
and were wondering whether to continue this mission of following Jesus to save
the world the way Jesus wanted to or to give up and do things their own way. Thus
the words of God: Listen to Him, was
a strong assurance to the disciples. In addition to representing the Torah and
the prophets (the Old Testament), the presence of Moses and Elijah was a strong
reminder for the disciples that it takes suffering to save God’s people and
reveal the beauty in human beings for the glory of God! Jesus told the
disciples not to tell anyone about the vision until his Suffering Death and
Resurrection because the message in the vision that life will get better only
if human beings are ready to sacrifice for the good of others and glory of God
would become clearer when people see Jesus suffering for them dying for them and
also rising from the dead.
Beloved,
life does not always go the way we plan or hope for. Life can have its cloudy
days. Maybe some situation in your life is not going the way you had hoped for.
Your relationships with family, friends, wife, husband, co-workers or your
physical or Christian life is not going the way you had hope for and you are at
your breaking point; but I want to challenge you to look beyond the problem you
are going through and say because of what God is yet to do I will NOT give up!
I will hold own and keep going! God is faithful and that he is always up to
something good!
View comments